Slogan Solutions: the Deadliness of The Easy Fix

The Flat Tax

Slash Government Waste

Entitlement Society

Just Get a Job

Adoption Not Abortion

Trickle Down!

Make America Great Again!!!

Wipe Out the Terrorists

Show of Strength

Let Go and Let God

We are not encouraged to think critically. We are trained to listen to our elders, our leaders, our superiors, from the second we are born till the moment we die. Crowd control is really the basis of every single ideology- political or spiritual.

Crowd control.

Every ideology has its own goals and agendas and every one of them depends on getting the largest amount of people on your team. When there are small numbers of people involved, positive reinforcement works. Talk your team up, show people what works and how their life will be better if they sign on, positive reinforcement is a great way to individually affect lives and effect growth for your cause. One on one. One at a time. A solid foundation for the future of your goals.

But, damn that's so slow. It's slow and tedious and requires actually, you know...talking to people and living all the good parts of your philosophy your own self as an example. Whew, that's exhausting and honestly kind of boring.

Humans being mammals, and of a community (herd) persuasion, the one thing that gets everyone's attention and action in a heartbeat is fear. Good old fashioned Fear.

Fear of death, fear of attack, fear of privation, fear of eternal damnation...Fear.

Now here's the good part.

Just something that causes instantaneous panic- like an earthquake, or tornado, or Facebook going down for an hour---all that Fear needs to be directed at something to be effective. So we also need---An Enemy.

The Enemy has to be an entire demographic---something big enough to rally anOTHER entire demographic into action.

Liberals, Nazi's, blacks, gays, conservatives, women, men, Muslims, Christians, Jews, Japs, Spics, Yankees, Rebels, Educated Elites, Rednecks... every single group can be demonized and utilized by another one. If they look, talk or live differently than you ALL THE BETTER to make them seem less like you, like your family, less human.

Now you have Fear, and an Enemy. People are afraid, confused, possibly panicked, and looking for an answer, and they want it to be easy, and blunt, and seemingly air-tight. Enter the Slogan Solution.

They are astounding in their stark simplicity.

So we have our Slogan Solution, and we have an Enemy. It's so easy, especially if the topic is all twisty and gnarly and somewhat painful to consider---merely cave to the Slogan Solution and it'll all be better in no time.

Now the hard part.

Take any one of the slogans above and hold it in your hand. Turn it over and around and really consider-

-what is the real issue it's addressing?
-what caused or is causing that issue?
-what caused THOSE circumstances in the first place?
(I know- this is hard. Keep going.)
-what can we do to address the original issues- NOT what's in front of us now, but what caused it? Treating the cause of a disease instead of merely masking the symptoms, as it were.
-what can we do, going forward, to make sure those original causes aren't given the environment to thrive?

The operative word that should come out of every mouth when given a Slogan Solution is "HOW?"

How are you going to do this? What steps exactly will need to be taken and what's the toll it will take on all involved?

You may think that 'Let Go and Let God' doesn't fit with the rest, but it does, unless the same above steps are taken. If a situation is so hopeless that all you can say is 'let go and let God', you need to be damn sure you have already done YOUR OWN SELF everything possible to remedy that situation and that means going thru the above steps. Let go and let God at its finest is saying, "I have done everything I can and everything I know how in order to make this better. That's either good enough or it never will be."

Slogan Solutions are great things to throw around, to rally behind and to wave a flag or holy book to. Catchy, inspiring, seemingly completely sensible.

But what does it do to your Enemy? Remember, your Enemy is an entire demographic of mothers, fathers, children, families who are in reality all insidiously exactly like your own. No 'buts'. Exactly. Like. Your. Own.

So hold their feet to the fire, these Slogan Solution Spewers. Demand that they tell us HOW. Insist that they relate to us the cost in dollars and human lives.

Refuse to be blinded by the simplicity of an Easy Fix.

Don't live in Fear of the Fire.

Stop, drop and roll.

Stop being afraid.

Drop the big questions on the fear-mongers.

Roll over their sorry asses and support your fellow humans.

All of them.

Who Could've Known?

"Who could've known Dylann would take the guns we know he has out of his room filled with racist propaganda and go shoot up a church? Did NOT see THAT coming!"

What the hell, America?

Young black men get killed all the time and we're told that it couldn't be helped- it's their culture that they are steeped in and it makes them violent, aggressive, dangerous. It's the cultural norm for this demographic.

Not armed, you say? Not committing a crime at the time? No worries- we can find a whole shitload of 'evidence' pointing to past transgressions that we can use to justify what was done.

Adam Lanza? James Holmes? Dylann Roof? Well, lets see here. Adam shot himself in the head when the cops showed up, but the other two were taken alive and are in jail. Obviously armed to the teeth and apparently not at all shy about shooting people dead, yet they were taken into custody alive.

And not only that, there is ZERO focus on the 'culture' they were raised in. Zero. They are simply labeled, 'troubled young men who just snapped. Who could've known?'

I guarandamntee someone knew. Someone knew they were messed up and STILL gave those boys guns to play with. Someone knew and STILL turned their backs and said, "Just boys being boys...they'll grow out of it" or WORSE- silently (and/or not so silently) approved of the mindset that led up to the last horrible moments.

Our 'culture' is every bit as sick as any other- MORE sick because we refuse to acknowledge that behavior like this is NOT an accident, NOT an isolated incident, and NOT surprising. It's ingrained into us and we don't even see it while being VERY vocal about, "I'll tell you what's wrong with THOSE people".

Maybe because I sit here in the glittering rhinestone that is the center of the shiny buckle of the Bible Belt that I see it more acutely- this barely-submerged, intolerant, judgmental bullshit that condemns an entire culture; admonishes them to FIX THEMSELVES, why don't they just fix themselves? Why aren't they more like US?

We have an entire log-jam in our eyes yet we snipe at their speck.

Yanno what doesn't help?

It doesn't help for us to be 'that guy'.

That guy we all know who always turns shit around to be about him. You're sick? He's been sicker. You're hurting? He's been hurt WAY WORSE than you. We need to stop being 'that guy'...stop saying, "Well, yes your community is hurting, but SO IS OURS", "Well, yes the cops looked to have used a tad too much force, but think of the INNOCENTS the cop was protecting---they didn't KNOW if he was armed or not".

'That guy' is a douche. When we're faced with something awful, we need to stop putting our own spin on it, protecting our own flaws and weaknesses. A young white man went into a church of black Christians, announced that black people are destroying America and shot them dead.

No one put him up to this. His thinking isn't isolated AT ALL (he just acted on it). It IS about race because he SAID IT WAS.

It IS about the culture he embraced- 200% about the culture of hatred and racism and everyone around him either embraces the same thing or knew DAMN WELL he felt that way.

Who could've known? Everyone around him.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/barrierbreaker/why-it-might-be-time-to-accept-that-white-lives-matter-more-a-black-atheist-reacts-to-dylann-roofs-bond-hearing/

American Heroes

While everyone is singing the praises of Chris Kyle- American Sniper, I'm not so quick to join the choir.

Oh, not because I don't think he was a good American or a good sniper or a good guy- I'm sure he was all of these things. And his death was a tragedy, as all death is.

I do question the common sense of 'treating' PTSD with loaded automatic weapons...I think that's sort of a dangerous version of getting back up on the horse that threw you...and Chris Kyle's untimely death seems to lend credence to that line of thinking.

Yes, I've heard and read some of the articles and interviews from other American Snipers that are less than complimentary, but here's the thing. It doesn't matter. Chris Kyle is dead.

He came home, wrote a book, got himself killed, and had a movie made about him. Then, to top it all off, the Texas governor-elect deemed it necessary to give him his own holiday...Chris Kyle Day is a 'thing' now in Texas and will be every year.

You know what else is a 'thing'?

A literal shit-ton of Veterans in this country that are homeless.

They're homeless and sick physically and mentally because they went off to fight for something they were told was worthy and came back broken and shattered.

There's so many the VA can't handle them all. There's so many going un-handled that they are killing themselves off at a higher rate than the war is killing them. More veterans have killed themselves after coming home to the country they fought for than have been killed in (fill in the blank of your favorite current war).

They're getting killed in war and they're killing themselves when they get home and you know who else is killing them?

Police officers. *Remember when they were called Peace Officers? What the hell happened to THAT?

Seriously.

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/shocking-video-released-cop-killing-homeless-veteran-drunk/

Our police officers are killing our veterans. Are they twitchy and drunk and drugged up and armed and dangerous? (the veterans) They can be. Or not. Raymond Keith Martinez was not any of those things except drunk- a state of self-medication he kept himself in for lack of proper help and medication.

51 years old, drunk and loitering. Shot dead.

Nicholas McGehee- purple heart recipient. Shot dead.

Tommy Yancy- served in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as boots-on-the-ground service after 9/11. Beaten to death.

AJ DeVillina- a High Desert Marine. Shot dead. On Veterans' Day weekend.

Are these men not also heroes? How were their sacrifices any smaller than Chris Kyle's? Why is their legacy and story not movie-material?

What about Chad Littlefield- the veteran who was killed with Chris Kyle? Only because of his proximity to Chris Kyle do we know his name and story.

And Eddie Routh- the man who killed both Chris and Chad- he's famous too, or infamous...heading for life in prison because someone thought it would be a grand idea to arm him in a 'safe and controlled situation'. He suffered from PTSD- just another broken pawn on our empire gameboard.

It's not that I begrudge Mr. Kyle his Official Texas Day. I just wonder where the Official days of remembrance for all the others are.

I guess they all can't have their own day because we'd run out of days right quick. Maybe we could give them each an hour because

Every 65 minutes, a military veteran commits suicide.

Look at this-

http://www.pbs.org/coming-back-with-wes-moore/about/facts/

The story and movie everyone should be talking about is NOT the story of Chris Kyle. It's Raymond, Nicholas, Tommy, AJ. It's Eddie and every veteran who is homeless and jailed and beaten and killed and who kills themselves in despair and hopelessness.

We are failing them. They stepped up and served and we are backing off and letting them fall.

We're watching them fall, sometimes pushing them over the edge, sometimes killing them before they kill themselves. That is not the hallmark of a civilized compassionate nation.

Every 65 minutes another tiny light in our national sky blinks, wavers and goes out and no one even pauses to notice.

In the time it took me to write this we lost another one. Before I go to bed we'll lose two more. By morning another half dozen will be dead.

And on and on and on...our country keeping time in corpses piled up of those who served and were summarily cast aside.

Less Than Inspiring

Yanno what I'm sick to death of?

Inspirational stories.

"What an awful thing to say! How can anyone be anti-inspirational story?"

I can. I can totally be anti-inspirational story because they are inherently cruel.

Oh, I get it. Overcoming adversity, surmounting great odds, rising above a humble perhaps even squalid beginning, yada, yada, yada.

Don't get me wrong- I'm not disrespecting those stories or those people because their accomplishments are worthy and to be lauded. What I *do* take issue with is that their stories are so often used as a weapon of derision for those who DON'T 'measure up'.

You know- the rest of us.

Try to talk about the difficulties of getting ahead in our society without the benefit of a beginning that includes the right neighborhoods, relatives or money and someone slaps up a story about the kid who makes a million dollars out of spunk and bootstraps.

Say something about a challenging- even life-threatening- health issue you or a loved one is fighting with, and BAM there's a heartwarming tale about a guy who beat cancer with a good attitude and sunshine enemas.

Natural disaster? There's the inevitable family talking about how blessed they are because they done found that baby up in that tree alongside the cat- both alive and well.

So what does that tell us? That the family next door who are all dead now weren't blessed? They somehow didn't pray right or well enough or went to the wrong church?

The thing about inspirational stories is that they celebrate those who do something that, given the exact same circumstances, OTHER PEOPLE CAN'T DO. They have some freak combination of luck, right place/right time, genetics, temperament and opportunity that the rest of us don't. Oh, for sure they work hard and go out on limbs and persevere sometimes to an extreme.

But they make the news because what they have done is SO UNUSUAL that it's remarkable.

If everyone really COULD do what they did, it wouldn't be inspirational- it would be mundane.

To hold up one of these stories and crow, "If THIS person could do it- anyone can if they want it bad enough" is cruelty pure and simple.

Because MOST people can't. Or for damn sure they would.

Tell that person who has worked two or three jobs at a time and never quite gets ahead that they just aren't trying hard enough.

Tell the person who is fading away with disease that they just need to take X miracle cure and have a better attitude.

Tell those people who lose loved ones to natural disasters that God needed more angels so he took their family up to heaven.

I have a better idea.

Why don't we support a society that doesn't make everything such a hard-scrabble for so many?

Why do we accept as normal people having to work 60+ hours a week just to stay clothed and fed and their family barely cared for...and then say, "Hey- I did it- my kid can too!" Isn't the whole point of life to make things BETTER for your kids?

There's not a damn thing wrong with looking at how things are and saying, "This is BULLshit! No one should have to work themselves to literal death. No one should have to feel responsible for the outcome (bad or good) of their own healing. No one should ever EVER have to think 'maybe if I'd prayed harder, suffered more, just had more gumption even though I bled bullets to get even this far'...no one."

in·spi·ra·tion
ˌinspəˈrāSH(ə)n/
noun
1.the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.


Instead of holding up a very few blazing stars to blind and shame us with their superiority, let's be truly INSPIRED to foster an atmosphere where success is not only attainable, but normal...and fill the skies with starshine.

PS- They were hunting hogs the other night. I heard the lead dog from afar, right through the walls of the house and over the sound of the TV. Rhythmic baying, deep and insistent coming closer, closer- probably down the creek bed. I went out onto the porch and was assaulted by the savage cacophony of the entire pack; lead hound over it all, but the high adrenalin growling, howling, barking, snapping of the back-up dogs; an assortment I knew even without seeing them- Catahoula and Pits and crosses of Mastiffs- everything big and bloodthirsty enough to haul a huge tusked feral hog to the ground.

My livestock guard dogs were frantic and answering them outburst for outburst with offensive fervor and I silently hoped there would be no physical confrontations between them.

Holding my breath in the aural primal hurricane, it inched up to our place, across it, and drove on through the night leaving only the sound of the early spring peepers in the creek, full moon peeking through the scuttering clouds.

Damned if We Do, Damned if We Don't

I'm a woman. Granted, I'm an older woman who no longer has those 'parts' that get pregnant, but at one time I did. And three times I used 'em.

I really enjoyed getting pregnant, loved every minute of BEING pregnant, survived three natural childbirths (the last one at home), and was/am a passable mother. No one's in jail and everyone is normal-on-the-surface which is as much as you can ask.

So I'm past all that child-bearing mess, but still feel pretty strong kinship to those who are still 'in the trenches'. And those Sisterchicks are suffering.

Here's what we get from about the time we're three years old-

You can be anything you want to be

You are nothing unless you're pretty

Don't be stuck up

Don't be too easy

NO SEX BEFORE MARRIAGE

BOYS WILL BE BOYS

(That one always confused me- so who are the boys supposed to have sex with if girls have to remain virgins and homosexuality is wrong?)

If you get pregnant you MUST keep the baby

If you have an abortion, you are going to hell

Having a baby and being a mother is the highest and most blessed calling for a woman

DON'T ASK US FOR ANY HELP, YOU SLUT!

You're only worth 70% of what a man makes for doing the same job

WHY DO YOU KEEP ASKING US FOR HELP?

Stay at home with your kids if you love them

GET BACK TO WORK!

You are not really happy unless you're married. And Christian. And not a lesbian.

You are nothing unless you're pretty.



And now we're dying. We're dying at a larger rate than women in Lithuania and Bosnia, ya'll. Not from Ebola, or cancer, or being struck by lightening- we're dying in childbirth or complications thereof. The most natural thing in the world for a woman to do- we're dying of it.

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2010/apr/12/maternal-mortality-rates-millennium-development-goals

Why? Are we really 'the weaker sex'?

Not at all.

So what's the difference between American women and say...women in Serbia?

Access to health care.

Here in the Land of Profit and Free Market, women are penalized JUST FOR BEING WOMEN- we are walking, talking, menstruating and birthing pre-existing conditions.

We're unstable and must be controlled. For our own good, of course. And (surprise surprise) it's the Red counties where women are suffering the most from regressive and restrictive regulations on their bodies.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/01/15/republicans-are-killing-women-us-maternal-death-rate-climbs-female-deaths-rise-in-gop-counties/

But it's OK if it ends up killing us.

At least it's mostly not the pretty ones dying.

PS- My dog is destroying a plastic bottle. Methodically, intensely, turning it into a pile of unrecognizable shards. She is focused and serene. Biting hard is relaxing. I envy my dog.

We Can't Afford It

The nation is broke, we can't afford to feed poor children, take care of sick people, house the homeless and comfort the old people. We can't afford to invest in roads, or schools, or new technology.

We can't afford it.

But we can afford the hell out of corporate subsidies ("We must take care of the JOB CREATORS!") We can afford to buy and send off drone after drone and bomb after bomb ("For FREEDOM!") and we can afford to do all sorts of other things as long as they don't smack of 'entitlements' or 'welfare' or 'socialism'.

Because that stuff's bad, ya'll.

That socialism stuff...just, *** I think I just threw up a little in my mouth.

Except it's not.

We have entire cities going bankrupt because of a capitalistic free market free-for-all that we're currently in the throes of. Oh, you hear that it's really because of the poor people...those lazy poor people...

So they come in and declare the cities bankrupt and put 'private consultants' in place. And yanno what they do? They part and parcel the whole shebang out to the highest bidder and completely ignore that THERE ARE STILL PEOPLE LIVING THERE.

Because they don't matter. They're just poor people. Those lazy poor people.

But what if? What if the poor people (who happen to live there) were given a voice and the power to effect their own change? What would they do to their city?

Well, it'd all go straight to Hell, that's what. They're poor. They don't have college degrees. They don't have business cards or ties or anything that would give them the authority and wisdom to know what's right for them, for their cities.

Or not-

http://www.geo.coop/blog/co-operative-revolution-reading-pa

This End of America the Capitalist Free Market...this may be what we have to endure- our 'labor' if you will, to get to the other side and onto our next phase of national life.

Maybe we can get it right this time and not be such douchebags to each other and the rest of the world. Maybe.

PS-
The sun came out today. It was glorious. I'm hoping to see it again tomorrow.

Too Big For Our Britches

We all heard it growing up- "Everyone wants to be an American!" "Everyone wants to move to America!" "America is the greatest country in the world!!!" We heard it, we absorbed it, breathed it, lived it, that belief oozed out of our very special little snowflake American pores.

I believed it till I grew up and started talking to people from some of those other countries, who were sort of surprised because, well, they LIKE where they are and wouldn't WANT to leave.

They don't want to be American.

"Outrageous! They're just jealous!"

Are they? What the hell of?

"They can't have GUNS there!"

Ummm...they don't WANT guns there. They are horrified at how often we kill each other by accident and by virtue of passionate moment. Horrified.

"They have high taxes there!"

Yep. They sure do. They also enjoy high wages, universal health care, free education THROUGH COLLEGE, short work weeks, long vacations, all sorts of goodies we don't have because we're too selfish/shortsighted/bullheaded/gullible to do otherwise. Because we're told that to be otherwise would be to give up our freedom.

So we're free.

Free to be underpaid.

Free to be sick.

Free to be uneducated.

Free to be over-worked.

Free to die at our desks because we can't afford to retire.

That's some Freedom there, boy howdy. FreeeeeDumb.

My favorite, of course, is "Well, sure those places can afford all that nice stuff for their people- WE take care of their security! WE protect the entire world!" WE saved all their sorry asses in WWII!"

Somewhere along the line we went from 'benevolent uncle' to 'empire-builder' without missing a beat; seamlessly, insidiously, relentlessly. We bring Freedom to the rest of the world...whether they want it or not. With sanctions and bombs and occupations and drones, we pound 'em with Freedom till they bleed and die, deliver enough Freedom to obliterate their buildings, their people, their societies.

"You sure do hate America! Why don't you just go live over yonder in one o them Scandinavian places if you love it so much?"

I don't hate America. I love America and it happens to be my home, my birthplace. I'm an American and know that the idea of America is still alive, still viable, and very much a good thing. We need to get back to that.

We need to stop being so damn afraid of ourselves that we startle, aim and shoot into the mirror, turn the gun when we hear a twig behind us and shoot ourselves. We're killing ourselves because we ARE each other.

We need to stop being so damn selfish and afraid that someone somewhere will 'get something they don't deserve' and just take care of each other. "judge not..." and "love each other" are direct orders from your Christ, remember?

We need to stop thinking that we are the best at everything and have the only ideas that make any sense and especially we need to stop looking down our noses at the rest of the planet like they're simpletons.

Because they're not. And we need to look at what's working in other places and not have a knee-jerk SOCIALISM COMMUNISM HITLER! reaction because that's just stupid.

We need to stop being stupid. But I don't know if we can.

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/01/11/country-crazy-inquiring-minds-elsewhere-want-know

PS- One of my friends lost her husband recently. Cancer. That's just the last of several in my little universe and every time it happens I think, "That could've been me. It so easily and quickly and nearly was me." It's going on five years since we almost lost Ward and I remember it so vividly- staring at my sleeping ten year old son and thinking, "What will I tell him? How can I do this alone?" I didn't have to...I DON'T have to. Ward's still here. Not 'by god's grace' but by his own amazing stamina and the skill of the medical staff Ward's still here. It's the little miracle I wake up to every morning and go to sleep to every night.And no matter what else happens every day...it's enough.

...And Thanks For All the Fish

For all the uproar about Global Warming/Climate Change- Is it man made? Is it human-accelerated? Is it even a 'thing' at all or just something the scientists made up with the help of a pile of treehugging dollars? here's something that is indisputable.

Whether or not we're killing the world as we know it (and we are- just in case you were still on the fence about that), we are 100% certainly killing the world for some of our fellow travelers, because we're killing them. All of them. Every single precious one of them.

I mean, lookit this-

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/01/dead-grandmother-dream-causes-florida-man-to-snap-and-destroy-spiritual-girlfriends-car/

No. Wait. That one'll give you the heebie jeebies. Lookit THIS-

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/science/wildlife-news/141231/13-species-we-might-have-say-goodbye-2015?mc_cid=aa67eacf04&mc_eid=d461ac6f14


These are not little things; things that no one would miss like mosquitoes or cockroaches or possums or Paris Hilton. These are 13 arguably more noble creatures than humans, including our much more human-acting cousins the gorillas.

And unicorns. My god- we've just about eradicated the actual unicorns.

Tigers, rhinos, leopards, dolphins...WHAT IS WRONG WITH US?

Poached. Squeezed out. Polluted out.

Genesis 1:28- "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."

And Boy Howdy, did we.

I can just see God returning to Earth from whatever great golf course in the sky he's been at for the last few thousand years and walking into what is, for all intents and purposes, the dreggish remains of the biggest kegger in the universe.

Shaking his head, God would say, "And this is why we can't have nice things."

PS- I had an entire weekend at home, ya'll. From Friday 10pm till today (Monday) 2pm I was at home, flat refusing to leave the yard. I'm here to tell you there is nothing sweeter than getting out of pajamas, taking a nice scalding hot shower, and putting on clean pajamas instead of going-out-in-public clothes. Nothing.

Not All...

"Not all" is a 'reversible' phrase. It's a close relation to "Not everything", "Not everyone" and "Not every".

Here's how they work. You can use them at the beginning of any sentence, and they render the sentence completely different from how you meant it. In fact, they're almost magical.

Just like the old saying about dogs- tell a dog

Don't eat that

Don't pee there

Don't chew this

And what they hear is

Eat that

Pee there

Chew this


They focus only on the words they want to focus on.

Anyway, here goes, and every single phrase below is 100% how I feel. Notice the inclination to exclude the first word from the thought process in order to fit me into some preconceived notion of who you think I am.

Not all cops are assholes.

Not all young black men are thugs.

See that? I can be against policemen who abuse the power of their position and not be a cop-hater. I can abhor those who misuse that power and still be outraged and horrified when two get murdered by a psychopath.

I can acknowledge that there are segments of young male society (any color) who live in and thrive on violence and not giving a shit while knowing full well that that's not all of them (or even most of them).

Those are true statements no matter who you are.

But here's what people hear-

All cops are assholes.

All young black men are thugs.


Those are false statements no matter who you are and only serve to divide us more than we already are.

Not everything a Republican says is a lie.

Not everything a Democrat says is the truth.


Again- all politicians are individuals with their own agendas and favors to repay. Some conservatives have good ideas and some liberals have bad ideas.

But what do we hear?

Everything a Republican says is a lie.

Everything a Democrat says is the truth.


Bad. Very bad.

Once more!

Not everyone who goes to church is a good person.

Not everyone who is an atheist is a bad person.


I've known some folks who have a path flat worn down from their house to the church and yet I wouldn't trust them as far as I can throw them. Ever. With anything or anyone.

I personally am an atheist, and I'd like to think I'm a pretty decent human being.

And yet, what do we hear?

Everyone who goes to church is a good person.

Everyone who is an atheist is a bad person.


Dangerous. Dividing. Deadly.

Here's what happens with statements like this. The first sets are open, accessible, discussion-inducing. They proclaim a non-concrete opinion that is inherently open-minded. Read 'em again and you'll hear it.

The second sets- the ones people's brains hear and then repeat as quotes- are absolutes that are not up for debate or discussion- those minds are closed tighter than a baby's mouth when there's strained broccoli coming at it.

In the end

Not every conservative is a racist bastard and

Not every liberal is a bleeding heart imbecile


but it's going to take careful and deliberate re-training on our own parts to fix this unconscious mental habit.

The politicians encourage it for their own ends.

The media encourage it for their ratings.

Every faction, race, religion, and group encourages it because there MUST be an 'us against them' mentality- otherwise how do we know who are the good guys (like us) and who are the bad guys (who we don't want to be like)?

If that automatic suspicion is gone, that instantaneous revulsion removed, where does that leave us as a people?

It leaves us with the truth.

Most cops are doing a difficult job bravely and unflinchingly and when even one of those dies in the line of duty it's one too many. It's especially heartbreaking when it's senseless, and random, and unexplainable.

Some cops are assholes who thrive on power and feed off hatred because cops are human and there are those types of humans everywhere, but it's more dangerous when it's a cop and those need to be ferreted out- even one is too many.

Most young men are just trying to find their way- in their peer groups, the world at large, in life. They make stupid mistakes because we all do. Most of those mistakes aren't fatal but even one is too many.

Some have been caught up in a destructive life and they are a danger to themselves and others and even one is too many.

Most Christians are good people who are trying to live life according to their Christ, who was a good example. Those are the ones quietly helping the poor, feeding the hungry, championing the downtrodden. These need to be spotlighted and emulated even though the 'humility' part of Christianity forbids them of doing so themselves.

Some Christians wield their Faith as a weapon and bludgeon the rest of us with it, whether we believe or not. They are intent on making our nation a theocracy...for our own good, of course. These people are dangerous, and self-serving, and definitely NOT Christians as Christ intended.

Here's the thing about Conservatives and Liberals. We're all American citizens with equal rights and equal freedoms. For the most part, we all love our country and want what's best for ourselves, our families, our communities and the nation as a whole. Most of us are aware that this requires compromise because we're all different and even though the Ends are very similar, the Means and Path to get there varies between ideologies.

Most of us are intelligent, thinking, caring people.

Some of us are assholes. Both sides.

Somewhere, somehow, we need to find the strength and patience and backbone to protect and celebrate those who are doing their best every single day no matter if they're in 'our group' or not. Across the board.

And we need to call out the violence and hatred and destruction mental and physical; haul it into the light of day and expose it for the evil it is and the evil it represents and be done with it. Do not accept it no matter where and who it comes from.

Do not.

America is a great idea. I think we should try it out sometime.

Got That Croatian Feeling Going On

Sometimes thing just stick in my craw.

Sometimes it's one of those little sourdough pretzel bites that I eat on my way to work but then I reach for my coffee and DAMMIT I've forgotten it on the kitchen table...again.

Sometimes it's something like this-

http://www.adriaticavillage.com/Adriatica_Village/Adriatica_Village_-_Home.html

This is a thing. It's a thing that's outside of McKinney TX, so we drive right close to it. There are a few 'communities' in between McKinney and Denton; the most notable (until now) being Savannah (complete with lots of imported palm trees and magnolia trees) and Providence (which is just sort of Stepford-ish).

These are not exactly gated, but they are extremely clannish in that they are fully self-contained subdivisions. You gotcher big schmancy houses- the ones surrounding the fountained pond at the lavish entrance, you gotcher more affordable homes all lining quaint little tiny-tree-lined avenues and all juuuuust different enough to not look totally creepy, you gotcher section just for "Over 55 Active Adults" far enough away from the affordable housing children so they don't have to worry about YOU KIDS WALKING ON MY GRASS!!!, you gotcher elementary school and yer private club and exclusive gym and all that mess. Circling the whole shebang is a single layer of strip malls that offer everything from dry cleaning to burgers to hair stylists to emergency rooms.

Providence alone has a population of over 5,000. That's five times the size of my little town. That's quite a subdivision.

But this...this Adriatica is something else.

First off, just by looking at it, you know there is no 'affordable housing'. It's Schmancypants City from the tippy top of the Bell Tower to the 'quaint cobblestone streets'.

Which is cool. If you have a buttload of money and want to pretend you live in Europe, that's great.

This is the part that is craw-stickingly jarring to me.

"The goal is to create community that in a relatively short period of time replicates villages that have taken centuries to develop. The project involves not only proper architecture and visual design, but also expertise in culture and social interaction. Not just how to build, but how to arrange the pieces of daily life, from where we live and work, to where we shop and play. It all comes together to form a balanced way of life."

Which is utter bullshit.

There are no Croatian fishermen here. No hard winters survived and generations of families and their various love/hate relationships intertwining the fabric of every person's history and future simultaneously, no hunger faced or natural disasters survived.

Be honest. Say "The goal is to create community that in a relatively short period of time replicates villages that have taken centuries to develop. The project involves not only proper architecture and visual design, and can do all this effortlessly because we have a metric fuck-ton of money at our disposal. We've studied the wants and needs of today's urban wealthy, and we know just what to build to enhance your life and fill it with truly comforting social interaction. We've artfully arranged the pieces of daily life so that once you enter these locked gates, your every whim will be fulfilled- food, drink, entertainment, shopping...it all comes together to form a life balanced with you in the center of it; as it should be."

Seriously. This is a single family house. They must catch A LOT of fish.



And what Croatian fisherman family wouldn't require the following stores in their village to make their life complete?

Cavallis Wood-Fired Pizzaria
Starbucks
Keller Williams Real Estate
The Guitar Sanctuary
The Sanctuary Music & Events
Independent Bank
UPS Store
The Bella Donna Chapel
Silk Road Thai Cuisine
Zin Zen Wine Bistro
Fleurs & Events
Harry’s at the Harbor

I'm not jealous and I don't care where people choose to live if it makes them happy. But don't say you're something you're not.

It's not a Croatian fishing village. It's a Disney-ish fancied-up version of a postcard of a Croatian fishing village.

It's a Croatian Norman Rockwell; the Face the real villages put on for tourists.

While it IS "a true community perfectly balancing the needs and wants of its inhabitants", there's no getting around that the inhabitants are extremely wealthy, and that piles of money are the very real dues to get here and stay here.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe when one of the residents loses his high-paying job they'll all rally around and take in him and his family, sharing their home and money and food until he finds another job.

I'd like to see that.

Really.

Toad Lickin' News

You know that thing where you can hear stuff even though you're really sleeping? It's that thing that causes you to have really strange dreams until you wake up and realize you've been watching the infomercial channel all night. Which explains your dreams of women who have successfully lost 258 pounds who are wearing the world's most comfortable bra, cleaning their houses with a Shark while clutching Ginsu knives in their teeth.

At least that's what I tell myself.

So this morning, before I was fully awake, I could hear the news. And the news was all about Ebola, or as it's referred to here in East Texas- Eboli. As in, "I sure hope I don't catch me any of that there Eboli that African feller brought into Dallas! Stuff'll kill ya quick as a possum slidin' off a melted trailer roof in July, it will!"

And that's pretty dang quick.

Back to the news. It sounded serious. "More breaking news about the Ebola patient currently quarantined in a Dallas hospital!" The perky reporter was on the scene, in front of Presby Hospital in Dallas. Her tone was serious, somber, her voice filled with foreboding. I opened one eye and gazed across the room to the TV- yep; she was pretty somber lookin'. Across the bottom of the screen the ticker was retelling the whole history of Ebola's attack on the US of A right here in TEX of AS. She continued...

"All forty five people who have been in contact with this man..." (pause for effect) "...are still symptom-free!"

Now both eyes were open, and I was sitting up. "Oh, for the love of..." But there was more!

"The homeless man who rode in the ambulance right after the patient with Ebola has been found!" (another pause) "And he is not showing any signs of illness!"

It hurts to roll your eyeballs too soon after waking up.

Back in the studio, the anchorman announced, "Yes, as ____________ told us, none of the people who were in direct physical contact with the patient are showing any signs of illness, including his girlfriend- who we have on the phone in an exclusive interview!"

"Hello? Are you there?"

"Ummm...yes I am."

"Great! And how are you feeling?"

"I'm fine, thanks. I'm OK."

"There you have it and you heard it here! Stay tuned to this channel for any other breaking coverage regarding the ongoing threat of the looming Ebola crisis here in Dallas!"

Someone once told me that if you lick a toad first thing in the morning, the rest of the day will be uphill. Far as I can tell, this was just as good. Bad. Whatever.

Things That Make My Head Explode

"STOP SHOVING YOUR AGENDA AND LIFESTYLE DOWN OUR THROATS!!!"

You hear that a lot from the Right. Like, every time something comes up that doesn't color exactly within the lines of what they consider 'the right way of thinking about shit'.

Lets take abortion. People like me think that it's a personal decision between a woman and whoever SHE wants involved in making it- family, doctor, God, no one...HER choice. Beyond that, it's a legal medical procedure so no matter what we personally think about it...it's none of our damn business. If somehow pro-choice were really pro-abortion and being 'shoved down the throats' of those opposed to it, we pro-choicers would be pushing for every pregnancy to end in abortion. Every one.

But we're not. Because we're pro-CHOICE.

How about gay marriage? If you are in a committed relationship with someone and desire to have the legal and social benefits that marriage provides, that's your choice and none of our damn business. If somehow pro-gay marriage people were really into 'shoving that gay agenda down everyone's throats' we would insist that everyone marry someone of their own sex. Everyone.

But we don't. Because we want marriage equality,not something narrowly defined by a twisted interpretation of the Christian bible...since there are many definitions of marriage in that self-same bible including how many concubines you can have and the forced marriage of a widow to her brother-in-law. Also some neat ways you can marry slaves and the women you rape.

And about that Bible.

Until the Commie Scare of the '50's, there was no "In God We Trust" anywhere and "Under God" wasn't in our pledge. Before that the money said "E Pluribus Unum" and the pledge went "One nation indivisible". So we went from "Out of many, one" to "One True God" and from "we may be many different people but we are united" to "the Christian God rules this joint!"

Freedom of religion also means freedom FROM religion if you so choose, because we are not a theocracy and there's NO WAY any god of any religion should figure prominently because we do not have a National Religion. Let that sink in for a sec and then segway to the many fundamentals on the Right who are screaming for America to 'turn back to God' and the insistence that we twist our laws around their bible. Exactly who is destroying the Constitution?

So lets think about this for just a second.

Exactly which 'side' is shoving their agenda on everyone else while hollering about PERSECUTION and the KILLING OF AMERICA?

Which 'side' is clamping down on the freedoms of others in order to force them to conform to their narrow view of right/wrong?

Hint. It ain't the Left.

I Guess It's My Fault For Breathing

And in the latest of a never-ending series of a game I call 'Lets Blame the Victim!' something happened a week or so ago that struck very close to home.

One of my long-time employees was riding her bike and got hit by a car.

She's in her 40's, so not a kid out weaving in the middle of the road.

She rides seriously and competitively, so there was a blinky light on the back of her bike (with brand new batteries, so nice and bright) and she was wearing a helmet and high-visibility clothing.

SHE WAS IN A GROUP OF BIKERS, so it's not like someone was just driving along and..."WHOA, HEY! THERE'S A BIKE THERE!"

Nope. The guy who hit her was driving along CHECKING HIS PHONE, looked up and 'didn't have time to swerve'.

She is in the hospital and just had her 4th surgery to try to repair her broken pelvis and spinal damage.

Here's where it gets really awful.

The news station ran a story on it, which portrayed the facts as stated above. There were many reader comments. I should not have read the reader comments.

"When are these idiots going to realize that cars and bicycles don't mix, our roads are for cars, trucks and motorcycles only, not bicycles, 4 wheelers, horses, golf carts, etc. Use some common sense people."

"Ride bicycles on the road at your own risk then if you want to be that dumb. Drivers have enough things to look out for as it is without adding bicycles to the list, and yes people using phones are a big problem to. All the more reason not to ride on the road."

And on and on it goes. That road is too busy. That road is too narrow (it's a FOUR lane road with a paved shoulder and center turn lane). They shouldn't have been there.

What the ever-lovin' fuck?

Back a few years ago my daughter got bumped and rolled while riding her bike- he never even looked for her...and no one stopped to see if she was OK. Her husband got hit by a car while riding and ended up in the hospital. Both adult competitive riders.

Are we that selfish and heartless? What about, "Hey Asshole- get off your damn phone while DRIVING A CAR!"?

Yanno what he was charged with? Failure to control speed. A damn speeding ticket. Not reckless use of a vehicle, not assault with a vehicle, not anything that says, "Oh, by the way- I hope that chain email you just HAD to check was really important because you've totally and completely fucked up someone's life for it".

Add this to the daily assault of rape victim-blaming, poor people-blaming,sick people-blaming, sneering at those in abusive situations and saying, "Well? Why don't they just leave?" and holy shit are we a messed up society.

Are we that selfish and heartless? Or are we that afraid that if we stand up and say, "NO- IT'S NOT THE VICTIMS' FAULT- IT'S THE FAULT OF THE BULLIES AND CHEATERS AND TAKERS IN THIS WORLD AND WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH" that we'll be the next victims?

So we give the bullies our lunch money and turn our heads when they beat up those who have no lunch money to give them.

We turn our heads so we don't have to think about the fact that in a heartbeat, the victim could be our mother, daughter, brother, father...us.

Putting a stop to the slut-shaming, bully-worshiping, gay-bashing, poor-hating mindset in our society is the first step to healing and actually 'taking back America'.

I'm not sure we can do it.

Criminal Cowboys and Idiots One, Great-Grandmothers and American Landowners Zero

Cliven Bundy is the new hero for the Far Right.

Cliven is a rancher and the story goes that the mean old environmentalists were insisting that he can't graze cattle on land he's been grazing them on for YEARS because 'it might hurt a tortoise'.

He 'stood strong' and defied the bad old government and thousands of armed citizens held a tense stand-off, all to defend HIS right to graze HIS cattle on HIS land.

Except that's not what happened.

It's not his land. It's federal land.

And he hasn't been paying his $1.35 per cow/calf lease fees for TWENTY ONE FUCKING YEARS. He owes the American taxpayers, including the idiots who were defending him, over a million dollars.

Meanwhile, the Keystone pipeline has been laid over land seized by eminent domain...PRIVATE land seized by eminent domain that is now used to bisect our nation over aquifers that supply millions of people with water and millions of acres of farmland with irrigation with a pipeline that is already leaking some of the dirtiest, foulest sludge imaginable and piping it (mostly) down to the international port of Houston.

It has to get to Houston for processing (taking billions more gallons of fresh water- something drought and fire-ridden Texas can CLEARLY spare)because it's not staying here. 100% of it is being sold overseas. Oh. And the pipeline itself is owned by a foreign corporation.

Where the FUCK were the thousands of armed citizens when THAT happened???

Nowhere. Families took the corporation to court and little old lady landowners handcuffed themselves to bulldozers and protesters were arrested and hauled away and all were berated and belittled and it was labeled some sort of ridiculous granola-crunching falderal by the far right ignorant, belligerent, incessantly yammering honking heads.

This was THEIR land. Not federal land. Taken. By a foreign entity. With the help of our government.

And yet...even here in gun-totin' gubment-hatin' Texas...NOTHING.

Just to the north of here- land that'd been in a family for generations, huge trees, pecan orchards (do you know how long it takes for a pecan tree to get to production age? A SHITLOAD longer than for a cow and calf to get eaten, Cliven)...all ripped out and replaced with that pipeline.

But where were the thousands of armed citizens to protect great-grandmother Eleanor Fairchild, who got hauled off to jail for trying to defend her property and her orchard? WHERE???

Guess she just wasn't 'cowboy' enough to warrant their attention.

Rather they make a big fucking deal out of an old criminal in a cowboy hat who cheated them out of one million tax dollars.

Way to pick your battles, assholes.

Dear Hobby Lobby...

I confess. I went into Hobby Lobby recently. I used to go all the time, before Michael's moved into the strip mall that's closer to where I work. I remember that Hobby Lobby and Michael's were essentially the same store.

Maybe I'm seeing things through different eyes now, but I don't remember HL being quite so in your face Christian before.

Walk into Michael's and it's...craft stuff, home decor, art supplies. Sure, in the home decor area there's stuff with crosses on it and sure in the picture frame area there's frames that say whoever's photo you stuff into it is a blessing to you somehow, but that's normal- especially here in the Bible Belt.

Hobby Lobby?

Holy shit. Really- the entire store is nothing but holy shit.

It was everywhere. I could literally not swing a cat without hitting something with the word 'Jesus' on it.

*And lemme tell you for the record- neither the cat nor store security considered that a valid measure, but it's a measure that's always served me well so I'm sticking to it.

Seriously, ya'll. Not only in home decor, but every single aisle had something bible-related prominently displayed. Every single center-of-the-big-aisles island was mounded up like it had been burped straight from the bowels of the Sea of Scripture- one little craggy atoll of religiosity after another from stem to stern the entire length and breadth of the store.

If I hadn't needed a cupcake pan for my snacks class in our secular, non-Christian liberal-lovin' co-op I would've walked right out.

Not because I'm allergic to Jesus (I'm sure those hives came from something in the air...) but because of their whiny-ass complaining (all the way to the Supreme Court) that they don't want to provide reproductive health care for their female employees under that mean ol' healthcare bill.

Specifically this- (from their own Wikipedia page) "In September 2012, Hobby Lobby sued the United States over new regulations requiring health insurance provided by employers to cover emergency contraceptives, stating that, "The Green family's religious beliefs forbid them from participating in, providing access to, paying for, training others to engage in, or otherwise supporting abortion-causing drugs and devices."

What they're talking about is stuff like 'the morning after' pill- that flushes out a woman's uterus BEFORE THE EGG CAN BE FERTILIZED. So...not an 'abortion-causing drug or device', just something they think is icky and might encourage 'loose behavior'.

I can see that. I can see where a corporate person (because they're ALL PERSONS NOW thanks to Citizens United) would live such a godly and upstanding life that they'd never, ever EVER be in a position to need something as tawdry as a morning-after pill.

Nothing they'd ever have to walk back on and think, "That was probably not my best life choice."

Wait. Lower down on their Wiki page is this (italics from the page, bold is mine)-

"In September 2013, a shopper reported being told by an employee of the store in Marlboro, New Jersey, it did not carry merchandise celebrating Jewish holidays. While the store carried Christmas items, they did not carry items related to bar mitzvah, Hanukkah, or Passover. The store employee told the shopper that these items were not sold, due to the owner's Christian values. In response, Hobby Lobby apologized for the employee's comments, stating that it has carried Jewish holiday items in the past, and would do so in test areas beginning in November 2013."

'Test areas'? What are they testing? To see if people who dive into Hobby Lobby for a full-on Jesus immersion would be offended by a section celebrating some OTHER religion?

Oy Vey.

Dear Hobby Lobby,

It's me- the old heathen hippie who darkened your pristine doorstep to purchase a cupcake pan for use in a totally secular home school co-op. We meet in a Unitarian Church, but I know that counts for nothing in your holy book. Because there are books on ALL religions, spiritual beliefs AND SCIENCE on the bookshelves of that church and you need only the one book. Whatever.

I just wanted you to know that I won't be back.

Oh, I could stand the almost total scriptural suffocation suffered from every shelf of your store...although you may consider changing your name to "Hobby Lobby Christian Craft Store"- that would both bring your flock flocking in even more fervently as well as warn us sinners to maybe not wear our pentagrams on the day we go to Hobby Lobby. Maybe.

I just can't abide the hypocrisy.

See, everywhere I read something about you, the one thing that's stressed when you're being small-minded bigots is that you're doing it out of the goodness of your Christian Values.

Now, I grew up Lutheran which I know is not considered a 'real' Christian religion down here, but we were taught that Jesus Christ (where the word 'Christian' comes from in case you forgot that) was pretty big on forgiveness and charity and compassion...all those words today's real corporate and political Christians think are 'weak and sinful'. He was big on loving humans- all of us imperfect messed-up carbon-based creatures who slog through life doing the best we can most of the time. He was huge on second chances and not a big fan of hypocritical assholes, especially those who chose to judge other people.

I don't think Jesus would approve of your Christian Values.

So you've gone all the way to the Supreme Court to defend your (defenseless) 'right' to not provide the morning after pill to your female employees. What, exactly does that save you? Pennies? Percentages of pennies? What is it costing you? Millions? More than millions?

Here's the thing, Hobby Lobby. You're not a church. You're a public business. You may have a Christian owner, but you're not a Christian entity. Sort of like the US is not a Christian nation, but it has a majority of Christian people. An ever-shrinking majority thanks to shenanigans like this.

Your employees might not all be Christians. Because siphoning your employment pool to only include one Faith is illegal as hell. Maybe I'll go apply at Hobby Lobby. I'd love to see what your interview process is like...

As a public company, you may not force your religious beliefs on your employees. May not.

So here's what I suggest. I suggest you take that millions of dollars you're willing to spend on a non-defensible and totally reprehensible stand and do something good with it. Put it towards school programs that actually TEACH the birds and the bees and not just 'don't do that', so that young people won't have just old-wives tales about when you can and can't have sex to not get pregnant.

Saying you 'love the sinner but hate the sin' has a lot more meaning when your boots-on-the-ground includes education beforehand rather than focusing on punishment afterwards.

Spending millions of dollars to prove how godly you by denying your employees legally available (and NOT ABORTION-INDUCING) health care seems more than a little assholish to me when it could be spent in many more...Christian endeavors.

What WOULD Jesus do?

Sincerely,

Sheri Dixon

You Learn Something New Every Day

Today was the primary election here in Texas, and it went about how it always goes for me.

The primaries are 'straight party' elections, so you choose to vote R or D. Here in East Texas, they used a potted palm to sit in the chair of the D side until I moved here, and now they need a real person to do it. She brings her knitting and waits for me to get there, then she can go home. I am mostly not kidding.

It was a philodendron.

I admit to not really paying much attention to the other stuff. The stuff at the end of all the names you can vote for. The propositions. I just always assumed they were the same for both parties. Turns out, they're not.

The propositions at the end of the names you can vote for are chosen by each party as things that they want to put forward in the general election in November. Shit that's really important to them.

Lets look at them here and you'll get a pretty good idea about Texas politics. Everything from here on in and in italics is typed directly off of the news reports and not my own wittily embellished stylings.

DEMOCRAT PROPOSITIONS-

ON IMMIGRATION REFORM- The United States Congress must pass immigration reform; including an earned path to citizenship for those individuals contributing to the economy and the dependents of those individuals. 86% for/13% against

A LIVING WAGE FOR ALL TEXANS- Congress should pass legislation raising the federal minimum wage to at least 110% of the federal poverty level for a family of four without exception. 90% for/9% against

MEDICAID EXPANSION- The governor and the Texas legislature should accept federal funds; as provided in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010; for the expansion of Medicaid to provide coverage to millions of uninsured and underinsured Texans. 89% for/10% against

NON-DISCRIMINATION LEGISLATION- The Congress and the Texas Legislature should adopt legislation that expands protections against discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations based upon sexual orientation and gender identity. 88% for/11% against.

REPUBLICAN PROPOSITIONS-

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM- Texans should be free to express their religious beliefs, including prayer, in public places. 97% for/2% against

SECOND AMENDMENT- Texas should support Second Amendment liberties by expanding locations where concealed handgun license-holders may legally carry. 86% for/13% against

FRANCHISE TAX- Texas should abolish the state franchise tax, also known as the margins tax, to encourage business growth. 88% for/11% against

WELFARE REFORM- Texas recipients of taxpayer-funded public assistance should be subject to random drug testing as a condition of receiving benefits 95% for/5% against

NO LAWMAKER EXCEPTION- All elected officials and their staff should be subject to the same laws, rules, regulations and ordinances as their constituents 99% for/1% against

OBAMACARE- The Affordable Care Act, also known as "Obamacare", should be repealed. 93% for/6% against


Alrighty, then. Lets recap, using only the actual propositions and not my interjected interpretations.

Texas Democrats are for immigration reform, a living wage, the FREE Medicaid expansion that would insure millions more Texans and non-discrimination.

Texas Republicans are for public prayer(I'm sure that includes Muslims), MORE GUNS, less taxes on the rich, drug testing the poor to punish them as much as possible, (actually- the NO LAWMAKER EXCEPTION one is ridiculous- they already have to abide by the same rules we do, ya morons but I LOVE that the 99% actually did outvote the 1% on this one) and to repeal Obamacare...which isn't even the name of the damn thing so as far as I'm concerned- you want to literally repeal OBAMACARE??? Repeal away, idiots!

What a bunch of short-sighted, small-minded selfish assholes.

The Circle of Politics

So I've noticed something.

There's always been a huge segment of American society who consider themselves 'moderate'. Republican and Democrat, they are moderate. Everyday folks who get up, point the kids towards school, drive to work, put in their time for the paycheck to pay for shelter, transportation, food, utilities, clothing and maybe a modest vacation once or twice a year. They don't pay much attention to politics, but they do vote and they do expect a basic set of stuff from their governments.

Protection of society as a whole- Roads, bridges, schools, libraries, police departments, fire departments, parks, utilities- all the things that make a civil society and keep us relatively safe.

Protection of individuals- The rights of free speech, religious freedom, equality between human beings without fear of reprisal or discrimination.

Protection from those in power- oversight and regulations making sure corporations don't poison us, work us literally to death, blow us up or destroy the environment, and making sure bankers can't tie us to the railroad tracks if we are unable to pay our bills on time.

See that? ^^^ That shit up there is basically all most folks want from their governments. And as long as the roads are drivable, the police show up when you call them, you aren't personally seeing any overt and blaring discrimination and the water out of your own faucet can't be set on fire everything's cool.

If you're used to voting R you'll pull that lever and if you're used to voting D you'll pull that lever- always for the guy who's picture you've seen the most and whose name you recognize from the tee vee ads with the flag and the eagle screaming in the background. Yay, America!

There's always been some form of 'far Right' and 'far Left', but those were small and chuckled at, regardless of how fierce they tried to look.

Then along came the Tea Party. Oh, it started out innocent enough- people who wanted to follow the constitution, and who thought the current administration isn't doing that. That the former administration(s) hadn't done it either is immaterial. They just now noticed so it just now matters.

Then they got a HUGE boost in funding from the Koch Brothers- you know, for America.

And now the Tea Party is a big ol' Fundamental Christian, gun-worshipping anti-government machine that has pretty much crapped all in the cogs of how things are supposed to work in DC. Guess they figure if it's not going their way, they will just blow it up. Because compromise is a dirty word. And any American who doesn't agree with them isn't a REAL American anyway and should just move to Hawaii. Because that's apparently not part of the US. But Canada is- right Ted Cruz?

The Right has been pulled so far to the Right that it's fixin' to tip right off the edge of this here flat planet. And what a loss THAT would be.

What that did was pull the Left not just towards the middle, but into what used to be Right, JUST to keep up with (the perceived) call for a more conservative nation.

Moderates on the Right are shaking their heads and thinking, "What is THIS shit?" when they see the bibles being thumped and women's rights being trampled and voter suppression and fucking Ted Nugent on the campaign trail with a serious candidate.

Moderates on the Left are shaking their heads and thinking, "What is THIS shit?" when they see regulatory commissions being headed by the very people they are regulating and the Keystone Pipeline being green-lighted and not a god-damn thing being done to the folks who caused the crash of '08 and who keep getting even richer.

And here's what's happening.

The moderates ARE still here- they're just on the other side of the circle. They've trotted along behind the wave of their parties until they couldn't stand the direction anymore and they've broken off- letting the batshit crazy far-Right pull the former Left off the edge of the earth and they're coming together again.

I'm Left. Way far Left. Left of Liberal, ya'll. I generally can't see a Democrat in my rear-view. The times I am able to talk (without getting barraged by FAUX News and Yell Radio talking points) to someone who identifies as Far Right, we agree on way more shit than we disagree on.

So often I hear that we need a viable third party because the two we have are not serving the majority of the people anymore.

Here's the problem with that. We're so used to a two-party system that one of our current parties is going to have to implode, literally crash, burn and not exist anymore for the rise of another party to be feasible.

Luckily, the GOP is obliging.

The danger is now. It's cornered and not going down without taking as many with it as it can- hence the many many wars it's fighting- the wars that make Halliburton and Raytheon very wealthy of course, plus the wars on women's rights, gay rights, the environment, the middle class (JOB creators? Are you fucking kidding me?)and basically anyone who is carbon-based and not incorporated.

And if you're a moderate Republican, you see the flag and hear the eagle and the narrator saying what a good American and Constitutionalist (and here in the Bible Belt, CHRISTIAN) the candidate is, see the happy smiling family portrait at the end of it and don't look any farther.

Because once they DO look, both sides of moderate generally say, "They voted for WHAT???"

And on the other side of the circle, moderates and semi-radicals are gathering and agreeing on things like personal choice for personal decisions- family planning, marriage, food, housing. Access to good healthcare and higher education paid for by everyone's taxes for everyone to use without question or stipulation- like roads and schools and police departments are now. Tax the churches. Dismantle our standing armies. Things that really ARE in the Constitution...because there's more to it than fucking GUN RIGHTS.

I believe if we are ALL vigilant and keep the death-throes of the GOP from dragging us all down with it, we'll come out the other side stronger, better and more of what we should be. Not even "what the Founding Fathers intended" because face it- the Founding Fathers were all rich landowners (and slave owners) and were forming a nation for other rich white guys- not women, not minorities, and definitely not poor people of any gender or color.

If we can survive this next bit of extreme political truly fucking dangerous bullshit, we can do what they never dreamed of.

Here on the other side of the circle.

Texas GOP Primaries- Hilarious if You Don't Live Here

Our TV has a habit of staying on all night.

I fall asleep watching House Hunters.

Ward wakes up multiple times at night and turns on various channels; Al Jazeera, Discovery, SciFi...so for a while I was having weird dreams about The World's Most Comforable Bra, the new Shark Vacuum and Buns of Steel which was very annoying.

So Ward took to having our 'local' channel on overnight. And I say 'local' because our stupid satellite provider's territories go by counties, not proximity to cities with TV stations. Therefore, our 'local' station is in Dallas- almost 100 miles away, and not Tyler- 20 miles away and where we go for all our big city shopping and where I work...you know- LOCAL.

But I digress.

That worked pretty well for a while- a small buzzing of news and so-forth from the Dallas area; weather, overnight shootings at the stockyards, traffic congestion, overnight shootings in Oak Cliff...

...until this morning. Apparently, today starts the blitz of

REPUBLICAN GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE PRIMARY ELECTION COMMERCIALS


Yes.

Here in Texas we get to choose which GOP candidate will run against Wendy Davis.

Now, keep in mind our current Texas Miracle Governor is Slick Rick Perry, who is not running again because he has bigger fish (he thinks) to bludgeon, shoot and fry on a national level- and a more slimy, selfish, unlikable asshole you'd be hard-pressed to find. So the field is really heating up to prove that there are MORE people who are MORE batshit crazy intent on pillaging and raping our state and its people every which way to Sunday.

Because Sunday they spend at church.

We've got Greg Abbott, who went straight for CrazyTown when he announced that he's taking along Ted Nugent on the campaign trail. I guess like a mascot. An ill-tempered non-housebroken mascot.

http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2014/02/greg-abbott-hitting-the-trail-with-gun-lover-hard-rocker-provocateur-ted-nugent.html/?nclick_check=1



We've also got Ken Paxton, who now has the dubious honor of having Ted Cruz's endorsement. Well, dubious unless you buy into Teddy's fake, syrupy, tear(or something)-jerking love of 'Merika. Note Teddy says, "Ken Paxton is a tireless servant. Ken Paxton stands and fights, whether it’s fighting against ObamaCare or fighting for Voter ID, or fighting to defend our Religious Liberty" which is all pretty horrifying if you're an actual thinking human American and understand that translates into "Ken Paxton will do everything he can to make sure Texans continue to have the highest percentage of uninsured people, the most obviously gerrymandered districts and ID laws that do nothing except keep people from voting, and keep this a CHRISTIAN Nation run on CHRISTIAN BIBLE LAW." Nope. Nothing Un-American THERE.

http://redsonja-conservativesinaction.blogspot.com/2014/01/senator-ted-cruz-ken-paxton-for-texas.html


The real cake-taker is Dan Patrick, which is weird because he's not even running for governor. He's running for Lt. Governor, but that's OK. He makes up for lack of ambition with true genius insanity. Because in a state that has a huge Hispanic population, in a party that is 'officially' looking to be more inclusive of 'other people' (that means women, people of color, gay people...anyone not male, white and over 65), this guy is running on the following platforms-

-Stronger border security and Sanctuary City legislation. Because we need to legislate Sanctuary Cities. Those things that don't really exist. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctuary_city

-Opposing in-state tuition for illegal immigrants (the DREAM act- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DREAM_Act which allows students who QUALIFY with superior grades in high school to attend college at in-state rates. The majority of these kids' parents came here when they were tiny and they don't KNOW any other home)because...fuck. I can't think of one good reason not to encourage ANY young person to get higher education. Not one.

-Reform Education and provide more choice which means more privatization of public schools. What a fabulous idea. I'm sure it'll work every bit as well as our privately run health care industry. http://www.salon.com/2013/09/15/diane_ravitch_school_privatization_is_a_hoax_reformers_aim_to_destroy_public_schools/


-Pass campus carry and protect the Second Amendment because nothing is a better idea than encouraging a demographic that is by definition emotionally turbulent and prone to sleeplessness, stress and a shitload of booze consumption to be armed with loaded weapons. How could that possibly go wrong?

-Cutting property taxes, business taxes and wasteful government. Everyone wants less taxes, right? Why should *we* have to pay for schools, fire departments, police departments, roads, public water, etc...we don't use that stuff and neither do our businesses. The fact that Texas is number four in pollution http://scorecard.goodguide.com/ranking/rank-states.tcl?type=mass&category=total_env&modifier=na&how_many=100, and has a less-than-mediocre report card for all infrastructure http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/texas/texas/
? Totally irrelevant. LESS TAXES!

-Defend life and traditional marriage. No explanation needed there.

And finally-

-Defend Texas against Washington. Sounds pretty secessionist to me, Danny Boy. I'm sure it's just a misunderstanding, and that you mean it in a generic "big government is bad, m-kay?" sort of way. And it's certainly not meant to stir up the whole 'Obama is a Muslim Kenyan Literally Hitler' crowd, right?

Except your actual campaign catch phrase is
"Secure the border. Fight Obama".

Yep. Nothing personal there.

http://www.danpatrick.org/home/

I'm a Texan- not born here but been here over 20 years now. I love this state. I absolutely abhor what the GOP has done to its people, its industry, its environment and its morale...just in these last 20 years. I voted for Ann Richards. Texas has NOT ALWAYS BEEN A RED STATE, no matter what the fucking talking heads on FAUX News and Yell Radio say and for damn sure no matter what this new crop of GOP douchenozzles tries to sell us.

Rick Perry's Texas Miracle is that any of us have survived it.

I do not believe we can take another round of governmental domestic abuse. "Vote for me, darlin'. I know we've screwed you over for 20 years but THIS TIME will be different. I know what's best for you. No one loves you like I do. Trust me."

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."- Sinclair Lewis

Rest In Peace, Marlisse and Family

So they're finally letting that poor woman die in peace. The pregnant one. The one who would've died weeks ago if not for the fact that she was pregnant and the pro-lifers all had a big ol' snit fit because THE BABY!!!

First of all 'the baby' was 14 weeks from being an egg and a cell at the time of the mother's collapse from an embolism. There's no way he/she would've survived outside the mother.

Now, at 23 weeks, tests have determined that the baby has grave deformities- lower extremities, heart, water on the brain...and would not survive to term.

This wasn't a case of the family hoping beyond hope that 'a miracle' would happen and Marlisse (the mother) would suddenly get better...from being brain dead. The family wanted her removed from life support weeks ago. The family had to hire an attorney to fight for their right to do what Marlisse and her husband had talked about if either one of them were in a state of non-viability- a death that's quick and dignified.

The Pro-Lifers decided they wanted none of that and denied the Munoz family any control over their own lives.

Here's my question to you, Pro-Lifers-

Ya'll are also generally very anti-government intrusion- you want to be left alone and FREE to make your own individual choices. Does something about this scenario not smack of the very opposite of that to you? Anything? Seriously?

Also- I have had actual conversations with pro-lifers and asked, "What if your daughter were pregnant and for whatever reason it was determined that unless her pregnancy were terminated she would DIE? Whose life would you choose?"

Without pause, they answer that they would pray about it with their daughter but they would LET GOD DECIDE.

Really.

Seems to me that God decided two months ago that Marlisse and her unborn baby should be in heaven.

And you assholes decided you knew better.

Shame on you. May your God have mercy on your souls.

Because I don't.

http://www.star-telegram.com/2014/01/25/5513457/hospital-discussing-future-of.html?storylink=addthis#.UuV0uU1FksU.facebook&rh=1

It's Not the Flu. I Never Get the Flu.

Ten days ago, Edna and I were at lunch and I swallowed my Sprite wrong and coughed.

"You're coming down with something" Edna said.

"No- I just swallowed wrong- I'm fine" I smiled.

"No- you're coming down with something".

I brought Edna home and went on to work. Joe came in to take me to dinner about 6pm and I was feeling decidedly light-headed, but not sick. Because I never get the flu.

By the time I drove home at 9pm I was shivering, feverish, and everything hurt. Even my hair. I went directly to bed.

I totally lost Friday. I literally have no recollection of Friday. At all.

I do remember Saturday. It was miserable. I took Meloxicam for the body aches and Tylenol for the fever and headaches and Diphenatrop for the havoc the Meloxicam and Tylenol wreak on my intestines. Also as much Emergen-C as I could siphon into myself in between bouts of coma-like sleeping.

Sunday my fever broke but I still felt like I'd been hit by a truck. A big truck with snow tires on it.

By Tuesday I thought, "If Ward drives, I'm sure I am well enough that we can go to Pam's New Year's Eve Party in Denton tonight. We can drop Sparky off and just visit a few hours and then go to the hotel where I can sensibly go to bed early".

By the time we got to Denton I was over-the-top dizzy and I lasted all of 45 minutes at the party- 44 of them sitting miserably crouched in a corner away from everyone and doing my best not to exhale. I had 4 crackers and some cheese. They were delicious.

I remember briefly waking up when our friends dropped Sparky at the hotel room around 2am. I asked him to turn off the never-ending trucks on the interstate highway right outside the door.

We drove home New Year's Day and I went straight back to bed.

The 2nd I had Ward drive me to work for about an hour, plus a few other necessary errands- he was literally my wheels and feet for all of it, but just that little bit did me in. I think I'm fine and try to do stuff but quickly tire and get dizzy- especially if there is auto travel involved- and I freaking can't keep my eyes open. They actually close of their own accord after losing all focus and directional abilities.

I gave the hell up Thursday night. Decided I'm not going anywhere till Monday. I'm in bed or on the sofa no matter how much it rankles my over-achieving spirit.

And it rankles. Whatever the hell it is that's knocked me on my ass for ten days now rankles.

Because it's not the flu. I never get the flu.