a gripey morning

This morning I was totally frustrated with the world. Well, with my very small world, anyway. It all started when I couldn't get up the hill ...

(This is the part where everything gets all fuzzy and we flash back to earlier today, with my voice narrating in the background. After a short musical interlude of course.)

The Ravenswood tracks go right through my neighborhood, so all of the E/W streets have to pass under them, including the side street that I take just about every day while going to work. Since Ravenswood Ave. follows the tracks, in some parts it is divided into a lane on each side. Where this happens, the cross-streets usually have a stop sign on either side of the underpass. This is the case on my normally trusty route to work. Well. The genius politicians in my dear city decided that this year they weren't going to salt the side streets in order to save money. (Can you see where this is going?) Having had a bit of weather over the last few days, the ice is beginning to build up. When you're driving on a flat surface, this is tolerable. However, the road slopes downward to go under the Ravenswood tracks, and back up to go back out. And I believe I mentioned the stop signs? The first one, not a problem. It's the one on the way back up that's the killer. If there's no traffic, I can safely roll through it to keep up my momentum and get up the relatively-tiny-but-covered-in-ice hill. But today, of course, there was a car waiting to go through, so I had to come to a COMPLETE stop at the sign. And when I tried to get going again? Well, let's just say that the wheels were on my side but the rest of the car had other ideas. Namely, not moving. Luckily, there was nobody behind me, so I backed down under the tracks again and tried to make it up with a "running start." It took three attempts at this before I finally made it through. Not a great start to the day. So. I think I'm going to be changing my route tomorrow.

Anyway, this got me thinking about why there's not enough money to salt properly, and where the money is going instead, and why they keep raising prices on things (Parking! Public transportation!) and yet we see little to no increase of service. Is it because of the recession? Is it because of the Olympic bid? Is it because of political corruption? Which, of course, opened up another can of thought-worms. I wasn't able to listen to any radio station this morning without hearing about how Illinois is by far the most corrupt state, according to the FBI, and how our dear governor is a sociopathic asshat. It all just made me want to move, but not enough to make me, you know, actually MOVE. I just wanted to. And I was grumpy. And now I'm grumbling to you about it because you're a good listener.

I know all of this is a pretty lengthy way of saying winter sucks, and politicians suck, and recession sucks. But hey, you asked. Oh wait ...

afterglow

I'm not going to say anything here about yesterday's election results except this: Congratulations, President-Elect Barack Obama! Your victory has made me proud to be an American.

In other much more important news, I just overheard someone say this: "I found Dad a cute vest for Christmas." There are just so many things wrong with that sentence.

ok, I'll play by your rules

Somewhat on the topic of the last post, I wanted to share something that happened JUSTNOW!! I believe I have mentioned previously that I have a very conservative coworker who likes to send out e-mails of questionable validity that perpetuate rumors about Obama, or others involved in his campaign. He never seems to check the truth of these things before blindly sending them on, so whenever I receive one, I go straight to snopes.com to check it out. Normally, I just satisfy myself with the knowledge that whatever his e-mail says is false, and don't forward the snopes link to the coworker. I don't particularly want to open that can of worms. But today, I'd had enough of it. I received an e-mail with an alleged article about Obama's views on the National Anthem that was so over the top, I could not let it slide. So I found it on snopes and sent the link to the 8 or so recipients of the original e-mail, saying "This is not true." The response I got was priceless. My very conservative coworker responded that he'd received an e-mail just a couple of weeks ago saying that snopes was owned by "a rabidly pro-Obama couple" who skewed their research in favor of Obama. And then he forwarded me said article. Now, if you've read enough of these kinds of things, you learn to see the signs that it is false before ever having to look it up. This thing was full of red flags. But again, I did not want to let this slide, so I decided to play a little game. The anti-snopes e-mail listed truthorfiction.com as a better source for verifying the e-mails you receive, so I did a little research of my own, and found this. I sent it out to the recipients of the original e-mail. I haven't gotten a response.

;)

I wanted to write about other stuff, but this is what came out

So, in case you've haven't noticed all the strange commercials on TV telling you how evil one person is and how awesome another person is, there's an election going on round these parts. Generally, I'm not a very political person. I care about the issues I care about, but I don't involve myself in the political process other than casting my vote when the time comes. But this election seems different somehow. Maybe it's because the issues I care about are front and center, or maybe I'm just getting older (and wiser?), or perhaps it's because my job security is somewhat dependent upon what party is in office. No wait, that can't be it because I'm voting for the other guy ... but that's a moral dilemma for another day. My point is this: I am worried about the future of my country, and the people who live in it. Therefore I cannot in good conscience vote for McCain. I am voting for Obama because he believes that the same things are important that I do. Health care is important to me because of who I am. Abortion rights are important to me because of who I am. Put simply, Obama represents me. If I was at all undecided about McCain at any point, the decision became much easier for me when he chose Palin as a running mate. Not because of her own family issues (which a surprising number of people have a problem with), but because she personifies the problems that I see in the government. A staunchly Republican friend of mine asked me why I wouldn't vote for the candidate with a female running mate. His reasoning being that I am a woman and wouldn't I want to see a woman in the White House? My response was, what kind of a woman would I be if I voted for someone based solely on gender? Especially someone whose views on abortion show so little respect to those of her own gender? But the closer we get to Election Day, the more confidence I have that Obama will win the Presidency. My most recent bit of good news was hearing that both my middle-of-the-road Mother and historically Republican Father will be voting for Obama this year. I was sitting at the computer at my parents' house the other day, reading an e-mail I'd gotten from the Obama campaign. I jokingly said to my Dad, "Look Dad, Joe Biden sent me an e-mail!" In the ensuing conversation, he asked how I could have become a Democrat, growing up in a Republican household. I said I didn't know, but mentioned that I'd voted for the Democratic Presidential candidate in the last two elections, and will be doing so this year as well. His response: "Why you little ... person!" Yes Dad, I am a little person.

on republicans and scrap metal

I got this thing in my inbox this morning (copied below) from a VERY conservative coworker who must just assume I feel the same way, even though we've never once had a discussion about politics. However, I can't really blame him for making that assumption since about 90% of the people I work with (the whole industry, really) are conservative. Hey, when there's a Republican in office, we get more money. Stands to reason, right? Anyway, being a more left-leaning individual, this e-mail infuriated me. I must also be a masochist because I read the whole thing, knowing full well where it was going. Now it's your turn:

2010 Was Not A Good Year To Be President

Welcome to Toastmasters, June 13, 2033. That's right: 2033.

Today Rick Campbell, one of our senior members at age 87, is here to reminisce a bit and give us a history lesson. He says he is so old that he learned to drive an internal combustion engine car (remember those) with a manual transmission. He once owned a typewriter. He remembers when bicycles had one speed, phones had two-party lines, and cameras had something called film. As incredible as this may seem, he says that when he was young, it was common for people to smoke in restaurants and public places. He is
from a different time; almost a different world.

I'm sure all of us are far too familiar with the tragic events of 2010, so Rick is not going to plow that fertile field again. Instead, he is going to give us a personal look back at the conditions which led up to that fateful year, in a speech titled "2010 Was Not A Good Year To Be President."

"2010 Was Not A Good Year To Be President"

Yes, 2010 was long ago and far away. As we look back on history, it appears that some Presidents had an easy ride- times of growth and stability. Teddy Roosevelt, Warren G. Harding, Dwight Eisenhower, Bill Clinton come to mind. Those were good years to be President. Others were elected just when the Republic was facing terrible crises: Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, George W. Bush. They rose to the occasion, even though they were controversial and widely hated while in office. Not such good years to be President.

Just a few years prior, in 2008, the country began foundering. We were in the sixth year of the Iraqi Occupation, and the economy was flat. The mainstream press clearly wanted a Democrat elected.

Although we didn't know it until some years later, oil producing nations had colluded to secretly buy their own oil on the open market, driving oil prices to shocking levels above the true demand price- reaching a high of $162 a barrel in October, 2008, just before the general elections.

Their purpose was simple: to effect regime change in the United States.

And of course, the U.S. economy was already in a real estate slump and also suffering the curse of stagflation; slow growth and high inflation. There were a million home foreclosures. Independent truckers went under by the thousands. Airlines failed. Airlines with names now long-forgotten: United, Delta, Northwestern, American. All now merged, of course, into the one lone U.S. carrier we love so much: Southwest.

Against this backdrop of weariness of the war on terror, and economic distress, the American people were ripe for a demagogue, and they certainly got one in Barack Hussein Obama. He and his running mate Kathleen Sibelius inspired them with vague notions of hope and change; of a world in which diplomacy settled all international problems, of free universal health care, of abundant alternative energy, of peace and love. It was a vision too good to resist.

The Republican nominee, a name you probably haven't heard in years anyone? Yes, it was John McCain, an obscure Senator from Arizona had no clue how to run a national campaign, and a platform nearly as liberal as Obama's. The selection of Condoleeza Rice as his running mate looked brilliant at first. Unfortunately, black voters viewed her as white, and women voters viewed her as one of the guys.

Even so, the McCain/Rice ticket would have won the election if it weren't for the fact that 16 percent of conservative Republicans voted for anyone remember? That's right, Bob Barr, another name that's a footnote in history.

After Obama's narrow win, thanks to recounts in Broward County, Florida, the country was positively giddy. A Democrat House, Senate, and President. At last an end to gridlock in Washington. Camelot!

When Congress convened in January, 2009, the 44th President of the United States did something unique in history: he made good on his campaign promises. Certainly most Americans never really thought he was serious during the campaign. But whether because of inexperience, idealism, or simply incompetence, he followed through. In Obama's first One Hundred Days, the Congress passed his initiatives, and he signed them into law as he said he would. He repealed the Bush tax cuts, and increased capital gains taxes. He enacted a windfall profits tax, and instituted price controls on gasoline and diesel fuel. He passed universal health care, which added an additional 10 percent tax increase on all working Americans. He signed the Immigrant Amnesty bill which created 12 million new citizens instantly, each with entitlements. He closed the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, and summarily released all the detainees. He repealed the Patriot Act, and cut funding for espionage, and eliminated all terrorist listening and wiretaps. Most important, he began the complete and immediate withdrawal of all American troops from Iraq. He ignored the advice of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who wanted to retain bases in Kuwait and Qatar. Instead, he went with the recommendation of Secretary of Defense Dennis Kucinich, and ordered all troops back to U.S. soil. Voila!

In One Hundred Days, by May of 2009, it was all done, and the vision was complete. He did exactly what he said he would do.

And so it was in the summer of 2009 that things began to unravel for Obama. Of course, the economy needed a tax cut, not an increase, and unemployment quickly rose to 12 percent. Even attorneys and economists were put in the bread lines. Hard times! Price controls on gasoline immediately led to shortages and gas lines. The global cooling trend we have seen for the past 25 years first became obvious in 2009, exposing the CO2 global warming fraud. People were justifiably angry. Federal deficits increased massively because thousands of baby boomers, facing job loss and much higher taxes, simply gave up and took social security. Although the superb U.S. health care system was thrown into disarray, the bright spot was the creation of the Federal Department of Health care, and the immediate hiring of 250,000
administrators, inspectors and auditors, the only job growth in any economic sector in 2009.

By February 2010, the U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq was complete. It was a very expensive undertaking. And then in March, the gradual Shiite insurgencies from Iran turned into a true Iraqi civil war. In May, Iranian tanks crossed the border and quickly took Baghdad. Although the exact number is not know, at least 230,000 Sunni Iraqis died as we stood by. Iran also quickly moved into undefended Kuwait. President Obama did exactly what he said he would. He sent Secretary of State, Maria Cantwell, to Tehran to meet with Iranian President Ahmadinejad. After two weeks of high level talks, the United States agreed to allow Iran to retain Iraq and Kuwait to create stability in the middle east, with the understanding that Israel would not be disturbed. Cantwell returned to Washington, and explained the agreement in her famous speech, in which she proudly noted that the Obama administration had finally achieved "peace in our time" in the Middle East.

So there was some surprise at the rocket attacks on Tel Aviv on August 14th. President Obama said, "This is not the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad I knew." The Obama administration decided it would be de-stabilizing to take sides in the conflict, and approximately 29,000 Israeli civilians died during the summer and fall. American Jews were appalled at the inaction. Yes, in 2010 most American Jews were Democrats, but because of 2010, they are solid Republicans today.

As awkward as it was, everything might have turned out all right for the Obama administration going into the fall mid-term elections of 2010, if it hadn't been for the dirty bomb in the Port of Long Beach. The administration had cut funding for the inspection of containers, because they felt it showed a "lack of trust" in the international trading community. It wasn't really a very big bomb, and thank goodness, not a real nuclear device, but nonetheless it contaminated some expensive real estate-Newport Beach, Palos Verdes Estates- and ultimately caused the death of 14,000 Americans. People were especially annoyed that Disneyland had to be closed for decontamination.

And so, in the midterm elections, Republicans regained control of both the House and Senate, and the rest is history.

The impeachment proceedings against President Obama for "failure to protect and defend" were swift and nearly unanimous. Vice President Sibelius resigned. Newly-elected Speaker of the House, J.C. Watts, became the 45th President of the United States. But you know the rest of the story well.

Republicans finished the war on Islamic fundamentalists, largely by aiming ICBM's at Mecca and Medina. No Democrat has been elected President since. Republicans have held both Houses of Congress. History of Western Civilization and Economics are now taught in all public schools, and in English only. Marriage is defined as one man and one woman. And there are border fences, north and south.

We old codgers remember the ancient Confucian curse: "May you live in interesting times." Well, 2010 was an interesting year, but it was not a good year to be president."

(Far fetched? We are likely to find out if we continue to be unaware of the issues and vote with our emotions rather than be studious in our approach to electing our "public officials".)

Where do I even start?? There are so many things about this that I find offensive, I can't even begin to articulate. Granted, it's a hypothetical, written by a conservative who is not an expert in politics, but it is so completely one-sided that the only conceivable purpose seems to have been to get the other side riled up. Congratulations. Mission accomplished.

Two things I have to mention before I change the subject: 1) This manifesto is basically telling everyone that there is only one "correct" way to vote. DO NOT vote Democrat because they will ruin your country. NO NOT vote Third Party because that takes away votes from who SHOULD be in power. Well, then what's the point of having a bipartisan government, I ask?? 2) The supposed utopia that is described as existing in the US after everyone miraculously decides to vote Republican for the rest of their lives ... that is not a US I would like to live in. My question is, will the border fence to the North prevent ME from escaping in that direction?

Even though this isn't exactly related, it served to feed my frenzy when I read this post on one of my favorite blogs this morning. I've never been to Detroit, but I feel like if I go there, I will be catching a glimpse of the apocalypse.

People are crazy.