March 18, 2014

When all a person has is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

The parasitic 1% can hardly be human anymore, they're so fixated on using $ to win their anatomy-measuring contests.

March 17, 2014

Thank YOU, my friend. Anyone might've laughed to see me storming home from the library early this

afternoon, face red as my coat, smoke boiling out from ears.... I must've been a real sight. Normally I write quickly, but it took me almost 2 hours to tone that letter down to family newspaper level. Mr. 'X' ragged on his wife for almost half a page - the usual sexist drivel posing as humor - and then he actually swiped at the entire German-American population, saying they sounded like they just got off the boat from Holland! As I said, a bleepin' Rush Wannabe. He's ragged on so many people and groups lately that it's a wonder he hasn't been run out of town on a rail. Most letters in opposition have been far more restrained than mine, but I wanted him to know what a cannonball feels like when it smacks upside his pinhead.

March 17, 2014

Guess which economist I'll be quoting in my next letter to the editor of our regional weekly.

Properly paraphrased and credited, of course. Most of these people wouldn't be able to grasp such elegant compound sentences.

March 17, 2014

My Latest Rant Against the Machine

So here's the text of my latest letter to the editor section of our regional newspaper. While I really do give up whining for Lent, this may be viewed more as a rant, with slight alterations to protect the identity of guilty and innocent alike. I wrote:
..........................................................................................................................................

(sigh) Just when I thought it was safe to turn away from the computer and try not to ask more newspaper letters space than necessary, I had to visit the library to catch up on the local weekly, and now I feel compelled to write once again.

Why, Mr. X, do you feel entitled to ridicule both your wife and the Mennonite lady all at once? Even separately would not be good Christian practice. These immature schoolyard taunts of all that is different from yourself, the 'others' who are clearly 'less than' in your eyes, gives the lie to anything else shouted to the rooftops about what you consider patriotism and godliness. This fondness for catcalling and trying to label liberals like me as "LYING HEYENAS OF SOCIALISM!" (a direct quote from the past) speaks to a deepseated fear of irrelevance. Maybe if the awful lies are shouted loud enough long enough, that will make them true? Just the opposite. Whistling past the graveyard is mighty cold comfort compared to learning to respect and love others as Jesus taught.

I'm sure the Browning of America scares the daylights out of the old guard, the previously dominant sector often referred to as angry old white men. That's not meant in a derogatory way; indeed, I struggle to learn and understand as much as I can about them. As I replied when one said he didn't feel like they mattered anymore: no, you matter just as much as ever. But you don't rule over the rest of us anymore as in the past. I don't want to preserve 'your' America, because this country is not YOURS and yours alone. High time for a changing of the guard. Don't worry; we'll try not to treat the old guard the way we've been treated. Turn about is NOT fair play. I say 'we' even as I prepare to turn 68 because liberals have this uncanny ability to embrace and participate in the future.

All this trumpeting about 'taking America back for GOD!' is pure hogwash. The old guard wants to take it back for themselves. Claiming it's for God's honor and glory won't pass muster. Add to that the fact that it can't be done and you're the ones condemning yourselves to irrelevancy. Entirely apart from the changing racial makeup of the nation, you also have the millenial generation to deal with, and the vast majority there do not look kindly on xenophobia, racism, sexism, war against the poor, and so on.

Anyone who keeps dreaming of a modern theocracy ought to take a close look at Iran; if you think alleged, self proclaimed Christians would behave any better, you've got another think coming. That's human nature, and not the best of it either. Besides, America was not founded on Christian principles. Most of those men were deists at best, and Thomas Jefferson himself proclaimed Christianity the most stupid religion imaginable. No, most of the founding fathers were in hock up to their eyeballs from trying to ape the old European aristocracy, live up to the Joneses as it were, and a convenient war proved a dandy excuse to nullify their crippling financial debt to merry olde england.

Don't get me wrong. I'm glad they did it and glad they prevailed. But we're better served by the truth than face saving lies, because the latter are self perpetuating and prove only the road to perdition. Conservatism has had its day and made ill use of it. A dying dinosaur screams loudest with its last breath. RIP.

March 17, 2014

No, you're stirring the pot. Whole different ballgame.

March 17, 2014

Late as I am returning to this thread to read all responses,

yours might very well be one of the best. Especially that last sentence.

I've long been acutely aware of unjustifiable differences of privilege. For instance, when I lived in L.A., I once went into a precinct office and bawled out the police chief in public. He got mad back at me, of course, and started trying to pee higher on the tree. That made me even madder, and I told him so flat out.

Did I do it because I was super brave or even extra stupid? No, aside from the issue of justice involved at the time, I did it w/o blinking because I damned well knew I could get away with it. I even dared the guy to arrest me. Said my first call would be to (____), who was known to be his mortal enemy just itching to fire his ass. Then I turned on my heel and walked out. Free as a bird. Due to what? Nothing but white privilege, despite the fact that the precinct chief was a pasty ghost compared to me.

March 17, 2014

True. There are none so blind as those who will not see.

I've heard the claim that it's easier to convert someone away from overt racism than the self-righteous fool who doesn't see the beam in his own eye.

March 17, 2014

I'm sure you have stories to tell!

I try to drop in at the BOG at least daily, but I've been a little swamped lately with other things. The guy that did the lattice on my front porch surround did it the way he wanted, not how I made very clear was necessary, and then he disappeared. Maybe the Obama sign in the front yard spooked him? Regardless, we get 85-mph straight line winds here, and a year later, sure enough half of it came apart this past week. I was sick and furious. But luckily my blessed new handyman came over and worked on it for me. Later he'll return and do even more. But it should hold for quite awhile now.

One thing that's had me hopping is the charity newsletter and the stupid smartphone I had to learn to use to call interviewees. How I hated that phone at first! Getting better with the bare essentials now, though, so I've stopped cussing at it. It was fun doing the first interview. I get to do all the fun (to me) stuff and none of the hard stuff apart from learning new technology. Once I get past that barrier, it's all gravy. I don't want to be an employee even though they offered to hire me. Let what my salary would've been - small enough at part time - go to the organization's expenses and recipients. Plus they might also suspect I prefer keeping my independence. They'll send me any equipment I need to do the job (besides meeting expenses), and although I insist it remain in their name, I seriously doubt they'll ever demand that I ship something back. So no telling what kind of job-required goodies might find their way to me. Things I could never afford, like smartphones. Oh, btw, while it's strictly cosmetic ego feed, I've been made an administrator. No duties or power, but a great title! I spend a certain amount of free time on the 2 related websites and sort of explain things nicely to newbies. Like a hostess free to come and go at will.

later: sorry about ramblin' on, quite possibly in the worst place imaginable. Don't know if the non-profit and the lateness of the hour are any excuse, but I'll grasp at the first straw available.

March 15, 2014

Didn't know he was GOP but sure glad not any more. Now if he can just persuade

my once-adored James Woods to follow him, I'd be tickled pink. James Woods is a brilliant man but nobody who sticks with the GOP can be considered smart.

March 15, 2014

Thank you. I'm grateful not to have to handle money either before or after the fact, since

I hate sales and bookkeeping. Although I'll be an executive of sorts, no board meetings to attend or get in arguments about. My friend doesn't consider himself half as good a writer, so he'll probably give me plenty of leeway in my own corner. I already think of it as Reader's Digest Lite. Told him I needed a template because I don't design web pages. As top dog, he'll be the one to choose which people get featured. My part looks as easy as rolling off a table. Interviewees don't even have to be scared up or vetted. That's above my pay grade! So it looks as if I have the fun part. I was checking out the phone online that he's sending me, and apparently I can stream stuff to the big tv w/o extra attachments.