I Tried To Express My Positive Emotions But The TV Distracted Me

I haven’t watched an inauguration since Clinton’s first. I was so happy and hopeful that day. But that’s nothing compared to how I feel today. Not simply because while I complained about the Republican presidencies of Reagan and Bush I, those complaints practically disappear when compared with my issues with this past administration.

I liked Clinton. I didn’t like Bush. But I never believed in either one of them. I never thought they were good men.

I believe in Barack Obama. I believe his is a good man as well as a brilliant one. I feel safe knowing he is president in a way that I’ve never felt before. I would like to bask in my happiness.

But I can’t do that and watch the news today.

Obama and Bush have handled this transition with class and sense. They handled the inauguration with class. But the talking heads – because it’s easier to comment on a lovely ceremony than to research and report on other news – are looking for conflict wherever they can find it. Now they’ve moved onto observing Gore and McCain at the luncheon, speculating on what they’re talking about. Hey, news professionals, they’re probably talking about how glad they are to finally be inside.

I think we need to be worrying less about the media having a liberal or conservative bias and worry more about how they have a stupidity bias. There are wars and conflicts going on all over the globe. It’s now come out that we tortured prisoners. We’re still in a financial and real estate mess – one that could always be explained better. The Steelers are going to be in the SuperBowl. So there’s PLENTY of serious news that they could be talking about. And instead CNN is telling me about what they’re eating at the luncheon and wondering what Senator Corbyn and Senator Clinton were talking about.

I read People magazine for gossip and info about luncheons. Or I watch E!. Doesn’t CNN have anything better to do?

Sarah Palin, Turkey Murderer

I never thought I would say this. . .but I’m tired of people picking on Sarah Palin.

Sure, I think the whole folksy anti-intellectual attitude is ridiculous. Yes, I think she’s a female version of W. Of course, I disagree with her on everything politically. But can we please let the turkey thing go?

In case you were fortunate enough to miss it, Governor Palin – after pardoning a local turkey – gave an interview in front of a turkey rendering area. Where a worker proceeds to kill some turkeys in the background while Palin blithely answers questions in the foreground.

Now, unless you are a vegetarian, being offended by the turkey killing is just plain stupid. If you eat meat, you are eating murdered animals (unless you only eat roadkill, in which case – how the hell did you get on the internet?). And if you eat murdered animals, why be all squeamish about how they get that way?

Folks, Sarah Palin hunts. And what do responsible hunters do? Eat their prey. And also, Gov. Palin is from ALASKA. One of the few places in the country where you need to bring a gun on a nature hike to protect yourself from wild animals. Killing animals is part of the culture of Alaska. They don’t just buy prepackaged meat at the supermarket, mmmmkay?

So leave Sarah alone about the turkey killing that she ignored during her interview. To her it was no big deal. If it was such a big deal to you, become a vegetarian – because you’re clearly not cut out to be a meat-eater.

A Public Service Announcement

I know some of you hate political posts. Please read this one anyway.

I’ve been tempted to write another post about Sarah Palin and her ignorance. I’ve been tempted to write a post about my loss of respect for McCain, between his disrespect of Obama at the debates and his extremely negative campaign ads. I’ve been tempted to write about the economy. I’ve been tempted to write about my disappointment in Congress.

But what good would it do? Researching the post would probably make me more angry. Many of you would agree with me – which is awesome, of course – and those that don’t would probably skip the post. So instead I’ve got a favor to ask.

We’ve all gotten political emails that shock us. We’re all watching negative campaign ads. We’re all (I hope) seeing debates (or debate soundbytes) where candidates stretch the truth. And that scares me. Because some of us are believing things that aren’t true (Obama is a Muslim ? Sarah Palin is middle class?). So all I ask is this, when you see an ad/get an email/hear something shocking, check it out with a neutral party. There are websites devoted to explaining – without bias – where the candidates actually stand on the issue.

Factcheck.org

Politifact

Project Vote Smart

Don’t vote out of fear, vote because of your knowledge.

Ignorance Is Not Bliss

I’m an elitist.

After all, I have a master’s degree.

Both of my degrees are from private colleges, no less.

I read the New York Times (on Sundays, anyway).

I eat arugula.

I’ve never hunted.

Never mind that I’ve actually worked with and taught the children of the poor and working class. Never mind that our budget is so tight these days that I’m using the Amazon gift certificates I get for reviewing things here to buy my kids winter clothes. Never mind that I know how many homes, cars and pairs of shoes I have.

You’d think budgeting and a husband who grew up in an actual small town in the heart of America would give me some “regular people” cred. And maybe they would, until I opened my mouth. You see, I don’t care that Sarah Palin is a mom like me. I don’t care that Barack Obama was raised by a single mom. I don’t care that John McCain was at the bottom of his college class. I don’t care about their “regular” credentials.

They are powerful politicians (yeah, even Sarah, seeing how she runs the entire state of Alaska and all) and no matter how humble their origins (you all realize that technically, Obama wins the humble origins sweepstakes, right?) they will never know what it’s like to be an “ordinary” American. AND THAT’S OKAY.

Ordinary Americans eat at McDonald’s – even though they know it’s bad for them. Ordinary American’s can’t find Iraq on an unmarked map. Ordinary Americans watch “The Hills”. Ordinary Americans wear Crocs to decent restaurants. Ordinary Americans don’t understand economic theory. Ordinary Americans don’t watch Friday Night Lights.

Are these SERIOUSLY the people you want running the country?

Personally, I would like a leader who understands economics, political science, world history, the Constitution, how to behave with foreign dignitaries and in various foreign countries, geography, English grammar and SAT words, what the vice-president and the rest of the Cabinet does, sociology and educational theory.

Because, uh, the president is responsible for making decisions in all of those areas. So s/he should know something about them. And be able to remember it for more than ten minutes. And I don’t know many “Ordinary Americans”, brilliant though some may be, who can converse intelligently on all of those topics.

So I suppose what really makes me an elitist is that I want the smartest person to win. My dad is having major surgery in December. I really don’t care if his surgeon is an asshole, as long as he’s brilliant at what he does. In fact, I hope he (not being sexist, it really is a he) graduated first in his class at an Ivy League medical school. And got perfect scores on his boards. Because this is my dad we’re talking about. And I bet everyone understands my feelings, right?

So why don’t people feel the same way about who they vote for? The president is responsible for the life of our country, after all.

Is NOW Going To Take Back My Membership Card?

I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t a feminist. I remember my first political act in the name of feminism, though. I was in first grade.

Since this was back in the dark ages, we actually had free play time in my first grade classroom (yet we still managed to learn to read, write, spell, add and subtract. . .amazing). Every day the boys played with the blocks. Every day the girls created puppet shows or drew pictures. Until one day, when  I we thought that the blocks looked awfully fun. So we went to the block area. And the boys told us that we couldn’t play. Completely offended, I marched over to the decrepit substitute teacher. Who told me that girls didn’t need to play with blocks.

I don’t remember what I actually said to her, but I remember my initial feeling of disbelief. She must not have understood me. I patiently explained to her that we girls WANTED to play with the blocks and that the boys wouldn’t let us. She not so patiently replied that blocks were for boys and that I should go do another puppet show. Realizing that I would have no help from the authorities, I decided on a different tactic: Violence.

Dragging the braver girls with me, I marched over to the block area and began kicking down buildings. The boys were stunned. And then angry. Flushed with the thrill of power, I didn’t care that every boy in my class was ready to hit me. I told them that I would keep knocking down their buildings until they let me play with the blocks too. Being nice, smart little boys they took me at my word. Blocks were for everyone then on.

Thirty years later, I still believe I am a feminist. I still believe everyone should get to play with the blocks. And yet I judge Sarah Palin. Not simply because I see most of her political views as abhorrent (no abortion for rape and incest victims? no sex ed? letting the business model take care of health care when they’ve done such a stunning job with mortgages?), but because I don’t think much of her mothering skills.

It’s not because her children – for the most part – are quite young. It’s not because her infant has Down’s Syndrome. I’m sure she has lots of wonderful nannies and older siblings to take care of the little ones. While I personally can’t imagine being away from my kids that much, that’s her business. What I can’t stomach is her decision to thrust herself onto the national scene while her seventeen year old daughter is pregnant. Either she’s so naive that she really believes the press will leave the poor girl alone (I guess she missed how cruel they were to Chelsea Clinton during her awkward years- not that it seems to have hurt the pretty Stanford and Oxford graduate) or she doesn’t care.

And even if the press does leave Bristol alone, she’s still going to have to go through the whole thing without her mother. I taught an awful lot of children of teen moms and all the ones who were happy and had great kids also had very involved parents. And there’s no way you can tell me that Sarah – or her husband – is going to have a lot of time for Bristol right now. And if she wins, she’s not exactly going to be able to help with babysitting. Hell, she probably won’t even have much time and energy for emotional support. And while all new mothers need lots of emotional support, I think young ones need more.

As I watched Palin talk about how Bristol and Levi were going to take on all of these adult responsibilities, I couldn’t help but think of how cold she sounded. Very “you decided to go against our beliefs by having sex, suffer the consequences, you’re an adult now and I’m done.” And I think that’s shitty – especially since this possibly could have been avoided if she’d been taught about birth control. But anyway, I think this is a lousy time to drag your family into the national spotlight.

And while as a feminist I feel like I shouldn’t care about Palin’s family, and that I should cheer that even nightmarishly reactionary women are breaking glass ceilings, I just can’t.

What She Said

I have no little problem with people who plan to vote for McCain and Palin because of their views on the issues (such as reinstituting the draft and allowing people on terrorist watch lists to buy guns). But for all those women who were Hillary supporters who are now going to switch to McCain because of his female running mate, I say this:

What Are Bootstraps, Anyway?

My father was a Republican until he got wiser in his old age, or until George W. Bush became the leader of the party, whichever you prefer. Last night we got into a discussion of Reagan and the Republican ideal of “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.”

What’s interesting is that the Republicans don’t have this same philosophy for corporations – they get tax breaks, they get huge grants with no oversight,  they get deregulated and sometimes they even get to be exempted from laws. Really. Look it up.

I’d always fought against the Republican philosophy – arguing for government help for the individual, such as keeping the mentally ill in hospitals and affordable health care and affordable day care and no tax breaks for the rich and parental leave policies at least as good as Hungary’s and a high minimum wage. But as we prepare to bail out mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and our economy goes down the tubes I’m starting to think maybe I was wrong.

All the Republican handouts for corporations have led to this  mess, you know. (Oh, and the war. Wasn’t it nice of us to step in and help all those Iraqi citizens? I wonder why American citizens don’t rate the same concern.) The great free market (except for farm subsidies, of course) and the beautiful, even corporate playing field has not worked out, has it? (Though I suppose it’s not completely even, according to Time Magazine 68% of foreign corporations that do work in this country don’t pay any taxes). Lives aren’t improving. Job growth isn’t improving. The only thing we’ve got growing is inflation. So who knows what would happen if we gave more help to the average citizen? Maybe things would get even worse. LIke they are in Canada. Or Sweden. Or New Zealand. Or Australia.

Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps is actually one of those ideas that sounds great in theory. Maybe if all kids were born into safe and healthy homes and then went on to effective schools, maybe if they all got enough to eat and good healthcare and none of them had any mental illnesses, then I would believe that it was possible for everyone to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.

Step Slowly Off of That High Horse

From Thursday’s New York Times:

“Since the Olympic Village press center opened Friday, reporters have been unable to access scores of Web pages — among them those that discuss Tibetan issues, Taiwanese independence, the violent crackdown on the protests in Tiananmen Square and the Web sites of Amnesty International, the BBC’s Chinese-language news, Radio Free Asia and several Hong Kong newspapers known for their freewheeling political discourse. . . . .

Chinese officials initially suggested that any troubles journalists were having with Internet access probably stemmed from the sites themselves, not any steps that China had taken to filter Web content. But Sun Weide, the chief spokesman for the Beijing Olympic organizing committee, acknowledged Wednesday that journalists would not have uncensored Internet use. “It has been our policy to provide the media with convenient and sufficient access to the Internet,” Mr. Sun said. “I believe our policy will not affect reporters’ coverage of the Olympic Games.”

Mr. Sun said foreigners  using  the Internet in China would be subject to the same laws under which censors blocked access to a wide range of Web sites thought to be detrimental to stability. China has long maintained that its laws governing Internet access do not amount to censorship and are similar to restrictions on pornography or gambling sites in many countries. . . .

The White House also urged China to lift its restrictions on the Internet. “We want to see more access for reporters, we want to see more access for everybody in China to be able to have access to the Internet,” the White House press secretary, Dana Perino, said Wednesday.”

I really think the White House should just stay out of this one. Yes, as far as I know, we all still have free reign on the internet in this country. Good for us. But we all have this policy in place:

(courtesy of Friday’s Washington Post)

Federal agents may take a traveler’s laptop computer or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed.

Also, officials may share copies of the laptop’s contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

So now Homeland Security can tap your phone, trace where you’ve been online and read your email, they can also seize your laptop. WITHOUT ANY SUSPICION OF WRONGDOING.

So, yay for freedom and democracy here in America. Sure, we can visit any websites we want – but who knows what will happen after we do? Hell, with the laptop seizure policy, we don’t even have to visit any “dangerous” websites to have our property seized and our private thoughts sent to various government agencies.

I know that, theoretically, this is meant to deter terrorists and/or find their plots ahead of time. It’s for our own good, right?  But the Chinese government believes that blocking certain websites is for THEIR citizens’ own good. And let’s face it, the potential for abuse – in both cases – is vast. But you don’t see the Chinese government – or any other government – putting us down for our draconian policy. Shouldn’t we let them have theirs?

Or, at least, could we pick on their serious human rights abuses? The jailing of dissidents? Tibet? Religious freedom? Darfur? Torture? (Oh wait, maybe we shouldn’t bring that up either) Stuff that’s a bigger deal than reporters not getting to access some websites.

Some Thoughts On the Criminal Mind

So I read somewhere that a jury in Texas acquitted a man who shot the men (in the back) who had broken into his neighbor’s house. And at first I thought, “Gee, maybe that will teach burglars something.” And then I watched one of those real life cop shows (Hot Guy’s idea, not mine) and saw a guy get pulled over for weaving. When the cop walked over to the car, the guy opened his door and shot the cop. And after shooting the cop, he stayed and beat him for a while instead of getting the hell away. And I realized, criminals are not very bright.

If they were bright, they would think about the consequences before breaking into a house in full view of the neighbors or shooting a cop and sticking around. They would think about the consequences, period. And then they would be a lot less likely to commit the crimes. And THEN things like armed citizens and the death penalty would be the deterrents they are supposed to be.

But I don’t think those clever criminals that show on up CSI (loved that miniature killer storyline) and Law and Order: Criminal Intent are very typical. Most criminals just aren’t responsible enough, smart enough or talented enough to support themselves legitimately. And if they’re not able to handle working at McDonald’s, do you really think they’re going to be able to figure out what might happen to them if they get caught?

Let’s face it, most of the really big criminals don’t get caught. Or at least they don’t get caught for a very long time. The top level drug dealers, the real life Tony Sopranos, the leaders of sex slavery rings – how often do you hear about them getting caught? Not half as often as you hear about the genius who tries to rob the 7-11 he visits daily. . . without a mask.

So can we please let go of the idea that the average car jacker or burglar is going to suddenly change his or her ways because s/he thought about the consequences? These are the same kids who spent their elementary school years missing recess because they didn’t do their homework – even though they loved recess and had been told the consequences over and over – the night before because “it wasn’t fun”. These are the same kids who kept getting beaten up in middle school, because they didn’t realize that mouthing off to the bullies was a bad idea. These are the same kids who dropped out of high school to work, not realizing that work was more demanding – and that the work options available to high school drop outs were not lucrative.

Can’t We All Just Get A Clue?

Have you gotten an email “accusing” Barack Obama of being Muslim?

(For the record, I wouldn’t really care if he was Muslim, because it’s not the typical Muslims, especially not the typical American Muslims, who become crazy terrorists AND it was men who called themselves Christians who caused the Oklahoma City bombing. Just saying.)

What I find especially laughable is that the people passing on these emails are the same people who freaked out over Obama’s affiliation with the Reverend Wright – you know, his former pastor at a CHRISTIAN church.

So let’s all repeat this together – Barack Obama is NOT a Muslim.

But wait, Fox News reports he attended a Muslim school.

Yeah, when he lived in Indonesia. Where most schools are Muslim. I know a number of people who were sent to Catholic schools because they were better than the nearby public schools. . . . .but it didn’t turn any of them Catholic.

So can we please forget this whole guilty by middle name association and skin color thing? It’s beneath us as a nation.

Fine, says Fox News, but what about his terrorist hand gesture?

You mean the dapping? With his wife? Common African-American practice? The hand gesture Ironflower learned after high-fiving? The gesture that none of the Iraq vets I know ever saw done between any Middle-Easterners in their entire tours? That gesture?

Well, stutters Fox, his baby mama hates white people.

Er, Obama doesn’t have a baby mama. Unless he had kids before he married Michelle. Which I’m SURE would have come out long before now. Oh, you meant Michelle? She can’t be his baby mama, she’s his wife. And I’m pretty sure the campaign staff would be a lot darker if Michelle truly hated all white people. Perhaps she just hates ignorant white people like you?

I’m sorry if I sound bitter or if I’m preaching to the choir. But I just can’t stand that all this ignorance is actually being used to attack Obama. And that former Hillary supporters might vote for McCain because of it.

(Though the ones I saw on some news program – who have some dreadful group called Hillary fans for McCain or something – said that they were voting for McCain because of the sexism against Hillary. I’m not sure how voting for the anti-choice, anti-stem cell research, anti-gay marriage, anti-affordable health care  McCain strikes a blow for feminism, but hopefully there aren’t too many of those idiots out there)

I know there are people out there who legitimately support McCain and that’s fine. If his politics match yours, great. If you support him because you heard Obama’s really a Muslim whose baby mama hates white people, please go back to middle school where you belong. And remember, middle schoolers aren’t allowed to vote.