Take a look...a few bad words, but what the hell? :)
Just Thinking,
Friday, October 10, 2008
A funny little song for SP
why, if we have such creative people, are we in this mess?
Take a look...a few bad words, but what the hell? :)
Just Thinking,
Take a look...a few bad words, but what the hell? :)
Just Thinking,
IF NOT NOW, WHEN?
This country is in trouble.
Politically.
Economically.
Ethically.
Morally.
What the hell has happened to us?
Was it just 8 years ago that we were more concerned with whether or not 2000 was the change in the millennium than we were with nearly anything else? (The answer to the millennium question is "NO", it's 2001 according the Gregorian calendar we use in this country). Most of the world celebrated the millennium January 1, 2000 anyway, which goes to show how much group think influences our world...think of it...very (VERY) scary.
Did we worry about "Y2K" and how it'd blow up the world of computing...but the day came and went, and nothing much happened, so we forgot about it and moved on to more important things. Things like "Kathie Lee Gifford Calls it Quits on Regis & Kathie Lee". WOW! Earth Shattering.
There was also a little stir toward the end of the year when the Supreme Court effectively handed George W. the presidency. But most people just didn't believe that there was any "irregularity" in the elections - well, most lemmings anyway. It was the first time IN HISTORY, that the Supreme Court determined the election. Now if that's not scary, I don't know what is.
What is wrong with the "average" American? When the hell did we lose our ability to think in favor of...what? "Security"????
And throughout the last eight years, at every opportunity, our civil rights and the illusion of personal privacy have been eroded away without so much as a whimper. Impotent protests, but nothing loud or impressive enough to convince "Joe Sixpack" that it's bad to give up rights our founding fathers considered "unalienable".
This is, perhaps, the scariest thing of all. How docile we are as we lose the rights and privileges that our soldiers are supposedly out there fighting for.
For the first time in my life, I'm actually concerned that the world will not be ok. We won't be ok after all the dust has settled. We'll be diminished - and unaware of the realities unfolding around us. After all, the media tells us what to think - with direction from the government (just ask Dan Rather about that). Imagine...government controlled media?
I don't agree with everyone on politics at all. In fact, I generally spend a good deal of time avoiding the subject as it's too inflammatory for most people to be able to debate it without getting their personal worth confused with a differing opinion. I do support our right to be different, to think and speak our minds (although this isn't legal anymore if you protest the government). Check what goes on without anyone saying anything at all.. These things can run the gamut from benign to malignant...it's how protestors can now be thrown in jail and have their property taken away merely for the act of protesting. Now, they may not have actually done any of this (as far as we know), but it's legal for them do so for PROTESTING. Scary.
I don't know what will come of all this, but I feel like I need to tell all of you to get out and vote. It might not be the person I will vote for - or it might - but the point is: VOTE! We need to take back the responsibility that we've given up. We are our own worst enemies letting others tell us what is "best" for us, and doing nothing but quietly observe what that means.
Get out and vote...make a difference...it's your own damn fault if you don't.
Just Thinking,
Politically.
Economically.
Ethically.
Morally.
What the hell has happened to us?
Was it just 8 years ago that we were more concerned with whether or not 2000 was the change in the millennium than we were with nearly anything else? (The answer to the millennium question is "NO", it's 2001 according the Gregorian calendar we use in this country). Most of the world celebrated the millennium January 1, 2000 anyway, which goes to show how much group think influences our world...think of it...very (VERY) scary.
Did we worry about "Y2K" and how it'd blow up the world of computing...but the day came and went, and nothing much happened, so we forgot about it and moved on to more important things. Things like "Kathie Lee Gifford Calls it Quits on Regis & Kathie Lee". WOW! Earth Shattering.
There was also a little stir toward the end of the year when the Supreme Court effectively handed George W. the presidency. But most people just didn't believe that there was any "irregularity" in the elections - well, most lemmings anyway. It was the first time IN HISTORY, that the Supreme Court determined the election. Now if that's not scary, I don't know what is.
What is wrong with the "average" American? When the hell did we lose our ability to think in favor of...what? "Security"????
And throughout the last eight years, at every opportunity, our civil rights and the illusion of personal privacy have been eroded away without so much as a whimper. Impotent protests, but nothing loud or impressive enough to convince "Joe Sixpack" that it's bad to give up rights our founding fathers considered "unalienable".
This is, perhaps, the scariest thing of all. How docile we are as we lose the rights and privileges that our soldiers are supposedly out there fighting for.
For the first time in my life, I'm actually concerned that the world will not be ok. We won't be ok after all the dust has settled. We'll be diminished - and unaware of the realities unfolding around us. After all, the media tells us what to think - with direction from the government (just ask Dan Rather about that). Imagine...government controlled media?
I don't agree with everyone on politics at all. In fact, I generally spend a good deal of time avoiding the subject as it's too inflammatory for most people to be able to debate it without getting their personal worth confused with a differing opinion. I do support our right to be different, to think and speak our minds (although this isn't legal anymore if you protest the government). Check what goes on without anyone saying anything at all.. These things can run the gamut from benign to malignant...it's how protestors can now be thrown in jail and have their property taken away merely for the act of protesting. Now, they may not have actually done any of this (as far as we know), but it's legal for them do so for PROTESTING. Scary.
I don't know what will come of all this, but I feel like I need to tell all of you to get out and vote. It might not be the person I will vote for - or it might - but the point is: VOTE! We need to take back the responsibility that we've given up. We are our own worst enemies letting others tell us what is "best" for us, and doing nothing but quietly observe what that means.
Get out and vote...make a difference...it's your own damn fault if you don't.
Just Thinking,
SNL WEEKEND UPDATE
REALLY?!? Some really good points here...seriously messed up country is through the laughter!
Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers report the news...
Part 2 with Hall & Oates
Just Thinking,
Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers report the news...
Part 2 with Hall & Oates
Just Thinking,
(Not Really that) Funny Stuff
That's Not SO funny when it's mostly true. These are kinda long, (and NBC has thrown an ad at the start) but the fact is, they are worth watching as good satire (or is it?)
Here's Tina Fey and Amy Poehler goofing on Sarah Palin. It's scary...really
SNL on the last Presidential Debate...
And here's the Vice-Presidential Debate goofing...laugh, because if not, you will have to cry (seriously).
Just Thinking,
Here's Tina Fey and Amy Poehler goofing on Sarah Palin. It's scary...really
SNL on the last Presidential Debate...
And here's the Vice-Presidential Debate goofing...laugh, because if not, you will have to cry (seriously).
Just Thinking,
The View From Abroad
OK. Most of you know where my politics lie (or think you do), but here is an assessment of the phenomenon that is Sarah Palin, and a commentary on the sad state of the American citizenship.
Sarah Palin winks during the vice-presidential debate on Thursday in St Louis, Missouri. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP
Cif America
Flirting her way to victory
Sarah Palin's farcical debate performance lowered the standards for both female candidates and US political discourse
Michelle Goldberg
guardian.co.uk, Friday October 03 2008 18.30 BST
At least three times last night, Sarah Palin, the adorable, preposterous vice-presidential candidate, winked at the audience. Had a male candidate with a similar reputation for attractive vapidity made such a brazen attempt to flirt his way into the good graces of the voting public, it would have universally noted, discussed and mocked. Palin, however, has single-handedly so lowered the standards both for female candidates and American political discourse that, with her newfound ability to speak in more-or-less full sentences, she is now deemed to have performed acceptably last night.
By any normal standard, including the ones applied to male presidential candidates of either party, she did not. Early on, she made the astonishing announcement that she had no intentions of actually answering the queries put to her. "I may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you want to hear, but I'm going to talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record also," she said.
And so she preceded, with an almost surreal disregard for the subjects she was supposed to be discussing, to unleash fusillades of scripted attack lines, platitudes, lies, gibberish and grating references to her own pseudo-folksy authenticity.
It was an appalling display. The only reason it was not widely described as such is that too many American pundits don't even try to judge the truth, wisdom or reasonableness of the political rhetoric they are paid to pronounce upon. Instead, they imagine themselves as interpreters of a mythical mass of "average Americans" who they both venerate and despise.
In pronouncing upon a debate, they don't try and determine whether a candidate's responses correspond to existing reality, or whether he or she is capable of talking about subjects such as the deregulation of the financial markets or the devolution of the war in Afghanistan. The criteria are far more vaporous. In this case, it was whether Palin could avoid utterly humiliating herself for 90 minutes, and whether urbane commentators would believe that she had connected to a public that they see as ignorant and sentimental. For the Alaska governor, mission accomplished.
There is indeed something mesmerising about Palin, with her manic beaming and fulsome confidence in her own charm. The force of her personality managed to slightly obscure the insulting emptiness of her answers last night. It's worth reading the transcript of the encounter, where it becomes clearer how bizarre much of what she said was. Here, for example, is how she responded to Biden's comments about how the middle class has been short-changed during the Bush administration, and how McCain will continue Bush's policies:
Evidently, Palin's pre-debate handlers judged her incapable of speaking on a fairly wide range of subjects, and so instructed to her to simply disregard questions that did not invite memorised talking points or cutesy filibustering. They probably told her to play up her spunky average-ness, which she did to the point of shtick - and dishonesty. Asked what her achilles heel is - a question she either didn't understand or chose to ignore - she started in on how McCain chose her because of her "connection to the heartland of America. Being a mom, one very concerned about a son in the war, about a special needs child, about kids heading off to college, how are we going to pay those tuition bills?"
None of Palin's children, it should be noted, is heading off to college. Her son is on the way to Iraq, and her pregnant 17-year-old daughter is engaged to be married to a high-school dropout and self-described "fuckin' redneck". Palin is a woman who can't even tell the truth about the most quotidian and public details of her own life, never mind about matters of major public import. In her only vice-presidential debate, she was shallow, mendacious and phoney. What kind of maverick, after all, keeps harping on what a maverick she is? That her performance was considered anything but a farce doesn't show how high Palin has risen, but how low we all have sunk.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008
Just Thinking,
Sarah Palin winks during the vice-presidential debate on Thursday in St Louis, Missouri. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP
Cif America
Flirting her way to victory
Sarah Palin's farcical debate performance lowered the standards for both female candidates and US political discourse
Michelle Goldberg
guardian.co.uk, Friday October 03 2008 18.30 BST
At least three times last night, Sarah Palin, the adorable, preposterous vice-presidential candidate, winked at the audience. Had a male candidate with a similar reputation for attractive vapidity made such a brazen attempt to flirt his way into the good graces of the voting public, it would have universally noted, discussed and mocked. Palin, however, has single-handedly so lowered the standards both for female candidates and American political discourse that, with her newfound ability to speak in more-or-less full sentences, she is now deemed to have performed acceptably last night.
By any normal standard, including the ones applied to male presidential candidates of either party, she did not. Early on, she made the astonishing announcement that she had no intentions of actually answering the queries put to her. "I may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you want to hear, but I'm going to talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record also," she said.
And so she preceded, with an almost surreal disregard for the subjects she was supposed to be discussing, to unleash fusillades of scripted attack lines, platitudes, lies, gibberish and grating references to her own pseudo-folksy authenticity.
It was an appalling display. The only reason it was not widely described as such is that too many American pundits don't even try to judge the truth, wisdom or reasonableness of the political rhetoric they are paid to pronounce upon. Instead, they imagine themselves as interpreters of a mythical mass of "average Americans" who they both venerate and despise.
In pronouncing upon a debate, they don't try and determine whether a candidate's responses correspond to existing reality, or whether he or she is capable of talking about subjects such as the deregulation of the financial markets or the devolution of the war in Afghanistan. The criteria are far more vaporous. In this case, it was whether Palin could avoid utterly humiliating herself for 90 minutes, and whether urbane commentators would believe that she had connected to a public that they see as ignorant and sentimental. For the Alaska governor, mission accomplished.
There is indeed something mesmerising about Palin, with her manic beaming and fulsome confidence in her own charm. The force of her personality managed to slightly obscure the insulting emptiness of her answers last night. It's worth reading the transcript of the encounter, where it becomes clearer how bizarre much of what she said was. Here, for example, is how she responded to Biden's comments about how the middle class has been short-changed during the Bush administration, and how McCain will continue Bush's policies:
Say it ain't so, Joe, there you go again pointing backwards again. You preferenced [sic] your whole comment with the Bush administration. Now doggone it, let's look ahead and tell Americans what we have to plan to do for them in the future. You mentioned education, and I'm glad you did. I know education you are passionate about with your wife being a teacher for 30 years, and god bless her. Her reward is in heaven, right? ... My brother, who I think is the best schoolteacher in the year, and here's a shout-out to all those third graders at Gladys Wood Elementary School, you get extra credit for watching the debate.
Evidently, Palin's pre-debate handlers judged her incapable of speaking on a fairly wide range of subjects, and so instructed to her to simply disregard questions that did not invite memorised talking points or cutesy filibustering. They probably told her to play up her spunky average-ness, which she did to the point of shtick - and dishonesty. Asked what her achilles heel is - a question she either didn't understand or chose to ignore - she started in on how McCain chose her because of her "connection to the heartland of America. Being a mom, one very concerned about a son in the war, about a special needs child, about kids heading off to college, how are we going to pay those tuition bills?"
None of Palin's children, it should be noted, is heading off to college. Her son is on the way to Iraq, and her pregnant 17-year-old daughter is engaged to be married to a high-school dropout and self-described "fuckin' redneck". Palin is a woman who can't even tell the truth about the most quotidian and public details of her own life, never mind about matters of major public import. In her only vice-presidential debate, she was shallow, mendacious and phoney. What kind of maverick, after all, keeps harping on what a maverick she is? That her performance was considered anything but a farce doesn't show how high Palin has risen, but how low we all have sunk.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008
Just Thinking,
Some things that I just NEED to say
If these people are representative of the "average" American, we are in some deep trouble:
The sad truth is that they aren't all that unusual (on either side). Ignorance is out there people!
Just Thinking,
The sad truth is that they aren't all that unusual (on either side). Ignorance is out there people!
Just Thinking,
Sunday, July 13, 2008
The latest and greatest...is it?
So...the new iPhone is out and guess what? I DO NOT HAVE ONE.
Bwahahaha...odd thought for you that know me. I generally am so on the bleeding edge of technology that I too bleed (money) into the ether.
I haven't decided about the new iPhone yet.
My old iPhone (the 600 8GB one - see what I mean about bleeding?), is working just fine, thanks.
AND, the new software is pretty cool too. There are even applications that I can download directly onto the phone (rather than using them web-based).
About the only thing that the new iPhone can do that the old one can't is:
faster internet service on the 3G platform and true GPS location.
For this, I'd need the new phone (duh), and would have to pay an additional $15/month for the same service level I have now (albeit slower internet) THANK YOU ATT!
I don't know that that is enough for me to make the jump. Apple sent out the 2.0 software update to my little first gen phone, and other than what's mentioned above, I'm all good.
I can even delete multiple emails at one time (which is a happy HAPPY thing).
so...for once, magic is sitting back and watching the show without being a part of it...
strange, huh?
LOL.
M
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