I’ve been thinking about the Two America

This year’s Republican primary, the lil bit of “Fox News” I’ve watched and living in the suburbs of Dallas, TX has got me thinking about the two Americas. And yes, I do now believe there are two Americas. Yes I’m on the liberal left but I have some good friends and family who are on the Conservative Right. And I love them so there has to be something about the Right that is good, makes sense that I maybe just wasn’t seeing or was overlooking. I think it comes down to Social vs. Fiscal issues. The Americans who are Social Conservatives live in a Country I just DO NOT get or want to live in. Our beliefs in what the country should be and stand for I think are too far apart to try to bridge the divide.

These are the things I want (or do NOT want) in my America:

 

1) I DO NOT want the government to tell me what I can and can NOT do to my body period end of story. (Just stop the war on Women’s reproductive rights and on Women in general. You lost Roe vs. Wade. Get over it and move on. Trying to rewrite the laws to get what you believe is right and just will not fly with me).

 

2) I do not want prayer or any reference to God in school or in the laws that govern us.

 

3) I believe that Homosexuals and members of the LGBT have the same rights and should be awarded the same privileges as any Heterosexual person/couple. We are all people no matter who we love.

 

4) My parents are both immigrants who came to this country so that they and their children (My sis & I) could have a better life and be better educated. College was not and is not a dirty word. I do not believe higher education is elitist. I don’t think the First Lady advocating eating healthier is her mandating we eat Gourmet (This was posited on the Fox News Show “The Five” :o).

5) I do NOT think Public Schools, Police, Fireman, Social Security and yes Healthcare are ENTITLEMENT programs! I think they are part of what America stands for (a better life see above point #4) No matter what your economic standing or what your parents are (if you are a child) you should be given/afforded a great education, healthcare and social safety net (I used to be in the top 7% of wage earners (based on the US Census Bureau, 2010 Personal Income) and paid a lot of taxes so others could have these programs and now that I have fallen to way way way below that, I feel grateful that there was a net to catch me so that I didn’t end up homeless and hungry). I do NOT think I get entitlements and I didn’t think people who got them when I was footing the bill for them were not entitled to them!

 

6) I don’t want my President to be someone who I can have a beer with or whom I think is on my level. Sorry I don’t. Being President is a hard job. I want the person who gets the job to be way smarter than me in knowledge, smarts, negotiations and critical thinking.

I think people who are Socially Conservatives care deeply for this country and for God and believe in their heart they are doing what is best (And believe me when I tell you that my Mother to this day is the Most religious person I have every known…. So I get the belief and the peace that comes with God). I just vehemently disagree with what they believe is the best course for this country going forward (and NO I don’t think the list above covers all the differences or the totality of what the Social Conservatives think….Just the things that stuck out as big issues right now at 4:am while I write this struggle to breath from my Asthma :s…So maybe my ramblings are from lack of Oxygen?).

People who are Fiscally Conservative want less government waste, less taxes etc etc I get that. I can get on board with some of what they want. And even if I may not agree with the method they might take to get to a place I too want to be I get where they are coming from.

Not sure any of this will make sense to any of you or if my Socially Conservatives Friends and Family will appreciate my take on things but it has just been mulling around in my brain and I had to get it out…lol

The big question is what do we do about it? How do we resolve the Two Americas? Resolve the vision I want and the vision they want to be a place where we all can live and prosper?

Any thoughts??

YIKES!! – Ignorance & Racism alive and well here in the good old USA

Perez Hilton posted this Video about USA citizen talking about why they don’t want Obama as president. I know racism still exists and 8 years of Bush is proof ignorance exists but this video shows the blatancy of it in America. Watch this video and tell me what you think.

Misconceptions of Obama fuel Republican campaign – 13 Oct 08

obama, racism, ignorance, bigotry, white

Why did the Rescue Failed?

The New York Mag recapped the rescue bill’s failure pretty concisely stating these as the four reasons:

1) Bad Marketing – “From the start, the Bush administration did not do enough to emphasize
the point that taxpayers would get at least some of the money back,”
writes Ben Pershing in the Washington Post

2) Constituents – Most Americans, it must be said, have never understood the mechanics and therefore the gravity of this situation.

3) Politics – As if the overwhelming negative reaction from their constituents in an
election year wasn’t enough to scare the crap out of Congress, there
was also the fact that some of them, namely Republicans, were grappling
with an existential as well as fiscal crisis: They’d supported
deregulation their entire lives! Now they were supposed to chuck it all
and become socialists?

4) The President – The American people have very little faith in George Bush….His approval ratings are at an all-time low…His support was ultimately more of a negative than a positive.

For me the Constituents and Politics were the top two reasons. If you want, read the whole article “Why Did the Rescue Bill Fail?“.

rescue, failure, bill, constituents, president, politics, bad.marketing

You Are Being Asked to Choose Between Bread and Freedom … the American People Have Chosen Freedom

The New York Mag quoted this from Wall Street Journal article:

“Michigan Republican Thaddeus McCotter paraphrased Dostoevsky when explaining his “Nay” vote to the Journal. “These interests who want your money threaten your prosperity,” he said of Wall Street. “You are being asked to choose between bread and freedom, and I suggest the American people have chosen freedom.”

Do you Agree or Disagree?

new york, magazine, wall street journal, freedom, bread, american, people, wall street

Pissed about Palin

My God-Sister sent me an article written by Cintra Wilson about Sarah Palin. It is indignant, and funny, but true. I don’t like Sarah Palin for Vice President and Wilson’s article captured many of the reasons.  My favorite passage in the article is this:

The Republicans are, in effect, saying: We’re not
going to win this race on the basis of being the better candidates. Barack Obama
is going to make you think. You don’t like thinking. Here’s an It Girl vice
president who is easy on the eyes, you stodgy old white baby boomer. She’s like
a grown-up version of Mary Ann from “Gilligan’s Island.” She embodies the raw
conviction that everything the Republicans have ever done has been right. She’ll
make you feel better about yourself for voting for Bush. Twice.

Relax: The war is God’s plan. (Or whatever.) Women,
even if they are vice president, can always look pretty, worship their husbands
in the fear of God and never, ever resist invasions from unwanted sperm.

Sarah Palin and her virtual burqa have me and my
friends retching into our handbags. She’s such a power-mad, backwater
beauty-pageant casualty, it’s easy to write her off and make fun of her. But in
reality I feel as horrified as a ghetto Jew watching the rise of National
Socialism.

–“Sarah Palin: White House Bunny” by Cintra Wilson

If you like that little bit of the article you should read the rest here then you can let me know what you think.

Technorati Tags: Palin, Cintra Wilson, Cintra, Wilson, Republican, Vice President, Bad, Choice, White House, Bunny, Politics

Meaning of Life

“It wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t take us so long to figure out.” -Dr Stephen Franklin quoted on Babylon 5 Episode “Soul Hunter” referring to Meaning of Life, Death and a Human’s short life span.

Technorati Tags: Babylon 5, Meaning of Life, Soul Hunter, Dr Stephen Franklin

This I know for sure….What do you know for sure

You know how Oprah has, on her show sometimes and in her magazine every month, the section called “This is what I know for sure”? Other people say they know that Death and Taxes are for sure. I’ve paid taxes and I’ve experienced Death. I know I will die. What comes after that is a mystery. I was raised in a religious household. I celebrated Christmas, Easter and Lent. I’ve been to church, not often mind you, but I do know that these holidays mean more than candy and presents. But if I’m honest I can’t tell you for sure that I know there is a Heaven or a Hell. Whether there is an afterlife or just nothingness I don’t know. I won’t know for sure until I get there. But none of this is what I’m talking about.

What I do know is that my Mother died almost 5 years ago. And since that day there have been two incidences that have made me sway more towards the there is something afterlife than not. I’m not a holy roller that is why I admit to my lack of church upfront. I’m a suspicious person who relies more on fact and science than on mysticism. But twice in the past 5 years, as I was sitting at my computer, I smelt something. Not the cat’s litter box which needs to be changed or the garbage that needs to go out; But a smell that was unique. The bodily smell of my Mother. I know you think I’m nuts. You think that I miss her so much that I’m imagining her. Maybe you think I was doing something that involved her or a memory of her and my mind conjured up her smell. Because smell and memory are very closely related.

The connection between odor, memory and emotion has an anatomical basis. The primary olfactory cortex, which receives information about smells from nerves in the nose, links directly to the amygdala, which controls expression and experience of emotion, and the hippocampus, which controls the consolidation of memories.

Odor-evoked memories may seem clearer or more intense than other memories because they appear to be more emotional than memories triggered by visual, audio or other types of cues, Herz finds.

Psychologist Rachel Herz, PhD, of Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia was quoted in the article “Certain smells evoke stronger memories“. There are many article like this that report similar findings. Smell and memories, emotional ones, are intrinsically linked.

I have distinctively smelt my mother 2 times. Her bodily oder which is something I think we each may know of only a few people in our lives. Our spouse or significant other, our children and our parents. Maybe a few others depending on the person. But it is definitely the people we feel closest too, who we’ve spent a lot of time with because we Americans spend so much time showering, putting on lotions, deodorants and powders that is is rare to know the real smell of most of those around us. So it is those we spend a lot of time around. Good times and Bad. Stressful times and Non stressful times. The times when we really sweat. When our truth whether it be smell or otherwise comes out.

I smelt her and it made me take pause. Why was her I smelling her now as opposed to other times? I’m not sure exactly yet. I’m trying to analyze that. Maybe she is just letting me know she is here. Maybe the universe is just letting me know that there is something more. Something beyond. Or maybe my mind needed hope and my olfactory senses gave it to me by conjuring up the smell out of the millions of molecules around me. I don’t know the why or how for sure. All I do know is it did happen and I’m better for it.

Technorati Tags: Oprah, Death, Smell, Memory, Olfactory, What I know for sure

Lines From “Battlestar Galactica” That Made Me Go Hmmmm….

The took down the following lines as I was watching the SCI-FI show “Battlestar Galactica” episode called “Escape Velocity” (Season 4 Episode 406). I took them down cause each line made me think of something in my own life. Do they make you think too? Lemme know.

Sometimes the right thing is a luxury. -President Roslyn commenting on Lee Adama

I wasn’t afraid to die. I was afraid of the emptiness I felt inside. I couldn’t feel anything and that’s what scared me. You came into my thoughts. You filled them. It felt good. -Captain Adama reading a book to President Roslyn

I’m not a priest. I haven’t been a particualrly good man. I have in fact been a profoundly selfish man but that doesn’t matter. You see something in the universe loves me. Something in the universe loves the entity that is me. I will choose to call this something God. A singular spark that dwells in the soul of every living being. If you look inside yourself you will see this spark too. You will but you have to look….Deep. Love your faults. Embrace them. If God embraces them, then how can they be faults.

Love yourself. You have to love yourself. If we don’t love ourselves, how can we love others?

And when we know what we are, then we can find the truth out about others. See what they are.

The truth about them. And you know what the truth is. The truth about Them, about You, about Me? Do you?

The truth is we are all perfect….just as we are. God only loves that which is perfect and he loves you. He loves you because you are perfect. You are perfect. Perfect just as you are.

Gaius Baltar preaching

I’m not a particularly religious person I call myself more spiritual but I like the thought that something in the universe loves me and that I’m perfect just as I am. Now if only I could really believe those things 😉

PS To anyone else who watched this episode: How strange was it to see Baltar “mysteriously” rise up when the guards wouldn’t let him back into his quarters?….Reminiscent of another man who mysteriously rose up?….Food for thought.

Technorati Tags: Battlestar Galactica, Sci Fi, TV, Escape Velocity, Religion, Death, Perfection

My response to “Why are my favorite TV shows getting canceled?”

I wrote this diatribe on Zunetips blog called “Why are my favorite TV shows getting canceled?“. In it he says:

“Jericho was canceled after one season, but was brought back due to a huge campaign by it’s fans. However, it seems that Jericho still has low ratings with weekly viewership, and appears to be on the path for cancellation again. Why is that? Who are the people or families that are determining the TV show ratings? Who are these “Nielsen Families” that are determining what programming stays on TV and what shows are canceled? I’ve never been asked what shows I watch on a weekly basis, so who are these people that are governing viewership of shows?”

“So I guess I’ll have to accept the fact that most shows that I deem as being “good” will only last one season. I guess that’s truly reality.”

I totally agree with him and wrote a response to his blog in the comment section. It was kinda long and I was on a soapbox so I figured I would share my soapbox rant it with you. I wrote:

I totally agree with you. I am a Jericho and Lost fan in a big way. I just started watching New Amsterdam but am hesitant to like it for fear the networks will cancel it. So I will have invested time on a show to see how the story unfolds and then be left hanging mid-unfold.
I hate to say it about the Nielsen Families (cause my father is one of those Dancing with the Stars viewers) but I believe they are mindless drones. They don’t want intelligent TV. They want empty shows that pretend to show reality. Really those shows are just another example of our society’s obsession of watching other peoples lives self destruct so we can feel better about our own lives ie Our obsession with Britney, Lindsey Lohen…ect.
I get that people work hard and may turn to TV for mindless distraction from their lives but why can’t we also have an option for people who like to watch a show and think?? Are the two things mutually exclusive? You can’t have both?
Also I think the networks have to realize that they aren’t going to get the HUGE audiences they use to because peoples view habits are different. We have many choices between Network TV, Cable TV, the Internet, Tivo, DVR and DVDs. So totally viewership for a show like Jericho maybe skewed between Network, the Internet, Tivo and DVR. I definitely think that the way Networks and other TV executives rate shows need to change to reflect the viewing habits of the CURRENT times. We aren’t in Kansas or the 1970s anymore peeps. Get with the program!

A New Choice for Women: Sterilization Without Surgery

I came across this blog post from blogger this time ~ this space while surfing and I thought it was interesting. Although I have no desire to be sterilized, I do welcome a new choice for women who do that doesn’t require surgery. Here is an excerpt in case you don’t want to read the whole article:

this time ~ this space » A New Choice for Women: Sterilization Without Surgery

Most women seeking to be sterilized now have their fallopian tubes “tied” or blocked, which involves surgery and 4 to 6 days of recovery. The FDA-approved sterilization device — Conceptus Inc.’s Essure — uses a tiny group of coils to sterilize a woman without surgery. The Essure method is an irreversible form of contraception that requires no incision and only a local anesthetic.

If you want to read the whole post, read it here:

this time ~ this space » A New Choice for Women: Sterilization Without Surgery