Great name, Europhobia. Most of the conservative Americans who fight any sort of change in this country have an innate fear of anything European, and I'm talking Western European, not Eastern. Funny how most of these same people listen to and believe 100% of what Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Mark Davis, or Bill O'Reilly have to say. God forbid questioning a radio host.
Have all of you forgotten that talk radio is geared toward the listener? They ARE NOT JOURNALISTS! They are entertainers who tell you what you want to hear. They deliberately stir up shit and preach to the choir. That's their job. They are not Walter Cronkite. Why do you not question statistics or rhetoric you hear on conservative radio or Fox News, but you wouldn't dream of believing a report or statistic you hear on MSNBC? Why do so many conservatives quote Rush verbatim without even checking his facts or reducing his venom?
Most middle-age, average, hard-working conservatives have never even traveled to Europe, or Australia, or the Caribbean, unless it was to a tourist port. That IS NOT being worldly! Having supper in Montego Bay, or taking the elevator to the top of the Eiffel Tower, or watching whales off the coast of Alaska, or getting a suntan in Cozumel, these do not count! You have traveled, but you haven't stayed in a youth hostel in Prague, or seen a doctor for free in Germany, or been without a tour guide in Asia, or taken a mini-bus in Jamaica, or been given a free meal and place to camp by a local family in Italy.
I am constantly amazed about the isolationist attitude Americans have, especially considering their poor travel record and complete lack of understanding regarding the customs, languages, etiquette, and religions of the rest of the world.
We are very ignorant, yet we continue to shout about and ideologically maintain our dominance and regal attitude with no clue about our neighbors, history, or ongoing global events (unless they affect us). It's actually pretty embarrassing. Instead of trusting everything Fox News or Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck says or writes, perhaps their believers should try traveling and reading for themselves. They might be surprised.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Americans are stupid, and yes, you can hold that against me...
Yes, when I run for office, feel free to use this blog against me. You know why? I've decided that Americans are just plain spoiled and stupid.
If you're black, you continue to hold a grudge and say this country owes you for your great-great ancestors' slavery.
If you're white, you think corporate America owes you a $100,000 job by the time you graduate college and that your parents are jerks if you don't own a new SUV, every game and Internet option, cell phones, and access to all credit available to them by the time you're 18.
If you're young, you think it's okay to make babies and have the government pay you for not working and claiming multiple dependents by multiple fathers by the time you're 23.
If you're old, you think you should be able to live off $800 plus/minus a month on Social Security rather than having built any savings or preparing for the future.
If you're overweight or obese, you think the government should go after the smokers for your health care rather than looking at what you eat everyday.
Am I way generalizing here? Yes. Am I also pointing to the facts of life in this country? Yes.
Obama is turning into a lousy president, just like some of us knew he would. And before all of you Rush Limbaugh parrots cheer me on, let me just say that I'm a liberal libertarian! Obama should have never gotten the nomination; Hillary should have. At least she had some experience.
Okay, enough venting for tonight. At least until I wake up tomorrow and remember how screwed up this country is and how spoiled we are.
If you're black, you continue to hold a grudge and say this country owes you for your great-great ancestors' slavery.
If you're white, you think corporate America owes you a $100,000 job by the time you graduate college and that your parents are jerks if you don't own a new SUV, every game and Internet option, cell phones, and access to all credit available to them by the time you're 18.
If you're young, you think it's okay to make babies and have the government pay you for not working and claiming multiple dependents by multiple fathers by the time you're 23.
If you're old, you think you should be able to live off $800 plus/minus a month on Social Security rather than having built any savings or preparing for the future.
If you're overweight or obese, you think the government should go after the smokers for your health care rather than looking at what you eat everyday.
Am I way generalizing here? Yes. Am I also pointing to the facts of life in this country? Yes.
Obama is turning into a lousy president, just like some of us knew he would. And before all of you Rush Limbaugh parrots cheer me on, let me just say that I'm a liberal libertarian! Obama should have never gotten the nomination; Hillary should have. At least she had some experience.
Okay, enough venting for tonight. At least until I wake up tomorrow and remember how screwed up this country is and how spoiled we are.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Dr. Rao and Family
Sunny here.
Funny how life has a way of connecting you with people you've never met.
When I was about 19, I was driving home alone after spending a weekend with my boyfriend and his family in San Antonio. I was a college student in College Station, TX, so I wasn't used to driving that particular route to the Texas Panhandle (about a 10-hour drive either way), and by the time I reached Lubbock, the radio was broadcasting all sorts of tornado warnings and thunderstorm watches. Well hell, I didn't know what county I was in or the names of all the small towns, and we didn't have cell phones back then. I considered pulling over more than once, but I kept on and finally made it home just fine.
Later, when I got back to College Station, I told a friend from Kress, TX, my story. He was the roommate of a friend, and I remembered he was from there and that his parents still lived in that small town. I told him I had thought of his parents during that rough drive and had even considered stopping and looking them up for a safe place to stop out of the storms because I was scared.
Well, my friend passed that story on to his mom and dad there in Kress, and boy did I get in trouble! His mom told him to tell me in no uncertain terms that I should have stopped at their house, stayed the night, and had a damn fine meal to boot! I explained that I hadn't wanted to impose on "strangers" and was told by his mother, through my friend (her son), that I was always welcome as I was not a "stranger" and that there was "no excuse" for my not stopping in, especially during an emergency. You gotta love parents who adopt you by proxy!
God love her, we've still never met, and I love that story.
I have always and continue to appreciate the parts of Texas that are still old fashioned. When it comes to hospitality, friendliness, food, conversation, and warmth, you can't beat the atmosphere you find here. Whether it's distant relatives, friends of friends of friends, or acquaintances of acquaintances, people still help and care for each other through the good and the bad.
I received a comment today from Dr. Kalpana Rao's daughter in response to a blog I posted two years ago. I'm touched that my thoughts and feelings could mean something to the family of a person I really didn't know all that well.
Guess my point is, we're all connected, and you'd be amazed how you affect someone else's life. I'll never forget the kindness a friend's parents wanted to show to me on that long trip home. And I'm happy, after all these years, that any words I (a very distant acquaintance) wrote had a positive effect on the family of Dr. Rao. She was a great lady.
Thank you,
Sunny
Funny how life has a way of connecting you with people you've never met.
When I was about 19, I was driving home alone after spending a weekend with my boyfriend and his family in San Antonio. I was a college student in College Station, TX, so I wasn't used to driving that particular route to the Texas Panhandle (about a 10-hour drive either way), and by the time I reached Lubbock, the radio was broadcasting all sorts of tornado warnings and thunderstorm watches. Well hell, I didn't know what county I was in or the names of all the small towns, and we didn't have cell phones back then. I considered pulling over more than once, but I kept on and finally made it home just fine.
Later, when I got back to College Station, I told a friend from Kress, TX, my story. He was the roommate of a friend, and I remembered he was from there and that his parents still lived in that small town. I told him I had thought of his parents during that rough drive and had even considered stopping and looking them up for a safe place to stop out of the storms because I was scared.
Well, my friend passed that story on to his mom and dad there in Kress, and boy did I get in trouble! His mom told him to tell me in no uncertain terms that I should have stopped at their house, stayed the night, and had a damn fine meal to boot! I explained that I hadn't wanted to impose on "strangers" and was told by his mother, through my friend (her son), that I was always welcome as I was not a "stranger" and that there was "no excuse" for my not stopping in, especially during an emergency. You gotta love parents who adopt you by proxy!
God love her, we've still never met, and I love that story.
I have always and continue to appreciate the parts of Texas that are still old fashioned. When it comes to hospitality, friendliness, food, conversation, and warmth, you can't beat the atmosphere you find here. Whether it's distant relatives, friends of friends of friends, or acquaintances of acquaintances, people still help and care for each other through the good and the bad.
I received a comment today from Dr. Kalpana Rao's daughter in response to a blog I posted two years ago. I'm touched that my thoughts and feelings could mean something to the family of a person I really didn't know all that well.
Guess my point is, we're all connected, and you'd be amazed how you affect someone else's life. I'll never forget the kindness a friend's parents wanted to show to me on that long trip home. And I'm happy, after all these years, that any words I (a very distant acquaintance) wrote had a positive effect on the family of Dr. Rao. She was a great lady.
Thank you,
Sunny
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Nadya Suleman: A Vocabulary Test Just For You (in no particular order)
Miss Suleman, this quiz is for you to define the words you think you actually understand. (No dictionaries, Internet, books, friends, or cheating, please; just your personal definitions.) I'll tell you the reality of these words if you respond.
oblivious, family, choice, single, job, narcissist, plan, mooch, "issues", neglect, fertility, selfishness, economy, ignoble, responsibility, welfare, children, leech, stability, pathetic, "trash", debt, husband, pity, duty, tainted, denial, income, embarrassment, parent, naivete, ridiculous, ovary, unemployed, dysfunctional, disgust, bonding, financial, blessing, bill, obsession, handout, fairness, providing, stress, future
oblivious, family, choice, single, job, narcissist, plan, mooch, "issues", neglect, fertility, selfishness, economy, ignoble, responsibility, welfare, children, leech, stability, pathetic, "trash", debt, husband, pity, duty, tainted, denial, income, embarrassment, parent, naivete, ridiculous, ovary, unemployed, dysfunctional, disgust, bonding, financial, blessing, bill, obsession, handout, fairness, providing, stress, future
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Big Gov - Baby, Baby, Help Me Please!
Okay, I'm so dumb that I really want the government to take care of me. I want a chastity belt to keep me from having sex and getting diseases. I want a mandatory church attendance required for Sundays. I want all fast food restaurants to offer salads and yogurt since I'm too dumb to know what I like to eat and when. I want all alcohol to actually be non-alcoholic so I can't endanger myself or my health. I want all bars, pool halls, restaurants, casinos, and pubs to be smoke free so I can't decide for myself whether I want to be there or not.
Yes, I want the government to decide for me, an adult, what I can or can't be around, do, eat, smoke, sleep with, or associate with, period.
Please, Big Government, Please Please Please help me manage my life, since I shouldn't. I only live in the freest country ever created, but I still need politicians, activists, lobbyists, and freakazoids who have never met me to tell me how, where, when, and why to live my life.
See you at the mandatory church session over salt-free, alcohol-free, meat-free, fat-free, dance-free, music-free, fun-free entertainment.
Yes, I want the government to decide for me, an adult, what I can or can't be around, do, eat, smoke, sleep with, or associate with, period.
Please, Big Government, Please Please Please help me manage my life, since I shouldn't. I only live in the freest country ever created, but I still need politicians, activists, lobbyists, and freakazoids who have never met me to tell me how, where, when, and why to live my life.
See you at the mandatory church session over salt-free, alcohol-free, meat-free, fat-free, dance-free, music-free, fun-free entertainment.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Who REALLY gets screwed in America?
Sunny, hear.
So, let me get this straight once again: While the conservatives of the world cry about Satanic socialism and the end of American capitalism as we know it (thanks to Obama being elected), they happily gather together on Capitol Hill and hand out billions of dollars to every corporate entity and lobbyist they know (and hunt with, and take pork money from, and travel in private jets with, and have Thanksgiving at front-row NFL tickets with, and sleep with, and get free plastic surgery from, and taste wine with, and... are you getting all this yet?).
So, no matter what us little guys do, it will never compete. Get it, yet???
I can give $50 to charity: it won't matter. I can get a master's degree: it won't matter. I can mortgage my house to pay for my kids' college education: it won't matter. I can clip coupons: it won't matter. I can hire an above-board CPA: it won't matter. I can NOT get pregnant before marriage, pay my bills, and try my best: it won't matter.
If you know someone, play the corporate interests, become a politician, dissolve into vitriolic hate-filled conspiracies on the air waves, intimidate, threaten and blackmail, embrace the idea of pure trash who can't or won't try, or just plain expect that THE WORLD owes you something, then you now fit right in.
Congratulations. The far right and far left now fit in with each other perfectly. Their only argument is who is going to pay for it and why, ideologically. But on paper, the government, which is ultimately the taxpayers, is paying for them both. Crazy, huh?
Both sides, how about this? I keep paying for YOU to get knocked up, and I keep paying for YOU to drill in Alaska. I keep paying for YOUR welfare because you refuse to work (even though you do so on the side), and I keep paying for YOUR new stadium that you and your team, not the fans, benefit from.
How about that? Americans paying for their own welfare, independence, decisions, and quests for success, comfort, happiness, and respect.
I'm not talking about true infrastructure, protection, supply, and transportation; I'm talking about pork and welfare and excess and lies and basic bullshit. Don't tell me a bill will help my highway infrastructure get me to work that ultimately pays for lobbyists to get wealthy. Don't tell me that Social Security will help with my retirement even though it's long gone after I've paid into it my whole life. Don't tell me it's the guy's fault or your family's or anyone else's when you had sex and then have the government pay for you and the next five kids. Don't tell me that Roe vs. Wade should be repealed when you won't support birth control or abortions even though you and other wackos refuse to adopt a child. Don't tell me that I can't get my child a decent, free education while the local, state, and federal committees get quail and champagne every meeting.
Oh, and PLEASE quit reminding me that CEO's, CFO's, auditors, dirty politicians, and related assholes of corporations that are failing or going out of business received millions of dollars in bonuses, stock options, travel expenses, and vacation homes while their stockholders, employees, and customers got royally screwed. As long as Rush Limbaugh excuses it, all of you idiots out there will actually excuse what happened and blame it on the liberals and democrats. Meanwhile, all those capitalists, investors, lobbyists, and right-wing politicians just get richer and richer. Maybe you should quit listening to Limbaugh and instead ask him for the names of his connections. Way to earn that education and think for yourselves!
So, let me get this straight once again: While the conservatives of the world cry about Satanic socialism and the end of American capitalism as we know it (thanks to Obama being elected), they happily gather together on Capitol Hill and hand out billions of dollars to every corporate entity and lobbyist they know (and hunt with, and take pork money from, and travel in private jets with, and have Thanksgiving at front-row NFL tickets with, and sleep with, and get free plastic surgery from, and taste wine with, and... are you getting all this yet?).
So, no matter what us little guys do, it will never compete. Get it, yet???
I can give $50 to charity: it won't matter. I can get a master's degree: it won't matter. I can mortgage my house to pay for my kids' college education: it won't matter. I can clip coupons: it won't matter. I can hire an above-board CPA: it won't matter. I can NOT get pregnant before marriage, pay my bills, and try my best: it won't matter.
If you know someone, play the corporate interests, become a politician, dissolve into vitriolic hate-filled conspiracies on the air waves, intimidate, threaten and blackmail, embrace the idea of pure trash who can't or won't try, or just plain expect that THE WORLD owes you something, then you now fit right in.
Congratulations. The far right and far left now fit in with each other perfectly. Their only argument is who is going to pay for it and why, ideologically. But on paper, the government, which is ultimately the taxpayers, is paying for them both. Crazy, huh?
Both sides, how about this? I keep paying for YOU to get knocked up, and I keep paying for YOU to drill in Alaska. I keep paying for YOUR welfare because you refuse to work (even though you do so on the side), and I keep paying for YOUR new stadium that you and your team, not the fans, benefit from.
How about that? Americans paying for their own welfare, independence, decisions, and quests for success, comfort, happiness, and respect.
I'm not talking about true infrastructure, protection, supply, and transportation; I'm talking about pork and welfare and excess and lies and basic bullshit. Don't tell me a bill will help my highway infrastructure get me to work that ultimately pays for lobbyists to get wealthy. Don't tell me that Social Security will help with my retirement even though it's long gone after I've paid into it my whole life. Don't tell me it's the guy's fault or your family's or anyone else's when you had sex and then have the government pay for you and the next five kids. Don't tell me that Roe vs. Wade should be repealed when you won't support birth control or abortions even though you and other wackos refuse to adopt a child. Don't tell me that I can't get my child a decent, free education while the local, state, and federal committees get quail and champagne every meeting.
Oh, and PLEASE quit reminding me that CEO's, CFO's, auditors, dirty politicians, and related assholes of corporations that are failing or going out of business received millions of dollars in bonuses, stock options, travel expenses, and vacation homes while their stockholders, employees, and customers got royally screwed. As long as Rush Limbaugh excuses it, all of you idiots out there will actually excuse what happened and blame it on the liberals and democrats. Meanwhile, all those capitalists, investors, lobbyists, and right-wing politicians just get richer and richer. Maybe you should quit listening to Limbaugh and instead ask him for the names of his connections. Way to earn that education and think for yourselves!
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Do us right, Mr. President....
To the new president,
You are the first black president our country has ever had. It's an unimaginable victory. I actually cried a little bit a few minutes ago when I read the wires.
Why? I am white. But... what? You say, "But what?" My parents and the generations before them grew up with "colored" water fountains, water hoses, colored and Jew jokes, bans on interracial dating or marriages, police stops, rape accusations, etc.
I was not the one harassed, and my generation's accusations and jokes began to pale depending on where you lived or grew up. But the separation was still there. This current generation has even less of that crap, but it still exists.
I am not necessarily happy that Obama will be our president, but not because he's not white. I have never felt he has enough experience. I have serious problems with the fact that he attended a church presided over by a racist for over 20 years and kept attending that church and defending the pastor all the while - a white candidate nowadays would have never have had that slide in the media.
Oh, and not that it might mean anything, but I also have major issues with a candidate who's wife claims that she was finally proud of her country for the "first" time about a year, year and a half ago. Excuse me? Sorry you live in a nice house, aren't starving, drive a nice car, don't have to sell your kids or have them "disappear" for military service or torture, attend any religious service you wish, and get the best education a free society can offer.
I hope you'll remember those of us who still don't have everything while you're up there, regardless of our race, ancestry, generation, or past. But please DO remember Americans before you just give away everything we've worked for.
You are the first black president our country has ever had. It's an unimaginable victory. I actually cried a little bit a few minutes ago when I read the wires.
Why? I am white. But... what? You say, "But what?" My parents and the generations before them grew up with "colored" water fountains, water hoses, colored and Jew jokes, bans on interracial dating or marriages, police stops, rape accusations, etc.
I was not the one harassed, and my generation's accusations and jokes began to pale depending on where you lived or grew up. But the separation was still there. This current generation has even less of that crap, but it still exists.
I am not necessarily happy that Obama will be our president, but not because he's not white. I have never felt he has enough experience. I have serious problems with the fact that he attended a church presided over by a racist for over 20 years and kept attending that church and defending the pastor all the while - a white candidate nowadays would have never have had that slide in the media.
Oh, and not that it might mean anything, but I also have major issues with a candidate who's wife claims that she was finally proud of her country for the "first" time about a year, year and a half ago. Excuse me? Sorry you live in a nice house, aren't starving, drive a nice car, don't have to sell your kids or have them "disappear" for military service or torture, attend any religious service you wish, and get the best education a free society can offer.
I hope you'll remember those of us who still don't have everything while you're up there, regardless of our race, ancestry, generation, or past. But please DO remember Americans before you just give away everything we've worked for.
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