A Must Read

I came upon this article through another blog’s posting. They called it a “Tough Read.” I am calling it a must read. Every person who thought it was a good idea to invade a sovereign nation without provocation must read this. Every person in a position of authority who either lied to Americans or made decisions to facilitate an unjust war must read this. Every person who I hear say that PTSD is something that’s just “in the soldier’s head” or believes that the armed forces are open to the possibility of occurence and effective treatment of PTSD must read this.

If you are, however, like me, I don’t recommend reading this at work.

Giving Thanks. I Promise to Annoy.

Tomorrow is the day we celebrate birds that go “gobble, gobble,” the day we plan out our Black Friday shopping sprees, the day that giant balloons and marching bands take over midtown Manhattan, the day we watch the Cowboys and the Lions, and the day we nap. It’s Thanksgiving (for those of you living under a rock…or, not in America)!

Not to go all puppies and rainbows on you, since that would likely send any sort of regular reader into shock, but I’d like to post a leetle list of things I am thankful for (besides silly things like a job, a house, my health, blah, blah, blah):

1. I’m thankful that I have a five day weekend, beginning sometime between 1pm and 4:15pm, today. (It depends on how generous the boss people are.)

2. I’m thankful that I only have two car payments left on the Gas Sipper.

3. I’m thankful that my aunt is doing much better after her heart attack (last week!) and is going to be able to spend Thanksgiving with the family.

4. I’m thankful that my brother-in-law got transferred to a different battery, and that this battery is not scheduled for deployment, next year.

5. I’m thankful that somebody loves me despite my moodiness, my apparent fear of makeup, my fat ass and my poor driving and cooking skills.

6. I’m thankful that there are at least a few people in the world who are smarter than the family we sat next to at dinner, last night. They ruined my meal with their self-righteous talk of St. George of the Bush.

7. I’m thankful that basketball season wasn’t canceled, this year, in favor of a (seemingly, at least right now) superior football program.

8. I’m thankful that my friends still love me enough to come over to my house, tonight, even though I haven’t been hanging out with them a whole lot, lately.

9. I’m thankful that my family and my whole entire life is nowhere near as crazy as some of the crap I read about, every day.

10. I’m thankful that nearly all of my Christmas shopping is finished.

It’s not just a movie with Matthew Broderick.

Tomorrow is a big day ’round these parts. It’s the day that my fellow Commonwealthers elect a governor and those that fill our state’s constitutional offices. Everyone that knows me should know that I’m a pretty darn liberal kind of gal. Those politicians who claim to be middle of the road or to the right of center tend to be too conservative for me on social issues. I used to be a die-hard Democrat. Until the last gubernatorial election (we can only vote for our party of registration during primaries), I always voted straight ticket, when applicable. There was never a candidate in any other party (or independent) that appealed to me.

Tomorrow, I’ll vote for a candidate in the Republican party, again (for a constitutional office). That would surprise a ton of folks, but, anymore, I feel so apathetic about politics. Our last governor and the incumbent have been embroiled in political scandal. Despite claims by all contenders to “clean up the mess” during the last election cycle, little was done and a huge ethics investigation resulted in many violations. All this, plus the fact that I’ve lost a lot of faith in our political leaders to actually serve the people, rather than self-serve, combine to make me just “eh” to the whole thing. I used to have passion and conviction for politics. Sadly, I feel I’ve become lazy and uncaring, although I do really care, but don’t feel like I can change anything.

Bizarre things are going on in this race. One gubernatorial ticket has been unanimously endorsed by the media outlets in the state. I’m not sure that has ever happened, before. This post explains an odd phone call that’s going out to voters (which would actually probably make me vote for the candidate more, which I’m not sure is the intended message). This article explains that entertainer Pat Boone and the Republican lieutenant gubernatorial candidate calling the Democratic ticket “the San Francisco treats” because they are endorsed by the Committee for Fairness and Individual Rights. :eyeroll:

After all the mud has been slung and the votes cast, I think that there will be a shake-up in our state’s politics. I hope that it will be for the better (it can’t get a lot worse), but I’m not setting myself up for disappointment. It’s likely to be politics, as usual.

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Today’s interesting fact is this:

I voted for the first time at age 17. How? Our primary elections are held in May. I was slated to turn 18 in July of an election year. Since I would be old enough to vote in the actual election, I was allowed to vote in the primary. I also was a poll worker, that year. Since then, I’ve never missed voting on election day. One year, I had to file absentee because I was constantly working out of town.

Election Day Musings

Today is primary election day in the Commonwealth. Folks across the state are lining up at the polls to determine which Republican ticket will face off against which Democratic ticket. In my state, you must be registered as an R or as a D in order to vote in the primary, and you are only allowed to vote for that party. I think this primary set-up is ridiculous. It promotes the two-party system and makes it nearly impossible for an independent candidate to have a chance. It also disenfranchises anyone who registers as an independent.

I’ve never “crossed the aisle” to vote for the other party in my eight years of voterhood. However, what if I wanted to? What if I found that gubernatorial candidate who perfectly embodied my beliefs and vision for the future? If they happened to be of a different party, there’s no way I could support them in the primary election, short of changing my party affiliation before the deadline. However, this would prevent me from voting for any of my regular party nominees in other constitutional office races.

I think the system is flawed, but I don’t see any possible way that it will change because it’s self-perpetuating. I’ve yet to see a winning Democrat or Republican with the guts to challenge the two-party system that worked to get said politician elected. Many people would say that politician would be crazy to do this. However, isn’t it a question of standing up for real democracy?

Dear Mr. President

No, I’m not copycatting one of my favorite blogs, but P!nk apparently is (when the hell did Pink start spelling her name with punctuation?). I bought her tune “Dear Mr. President” on iTunes last night because it featured one of my favorite groups, the Indigo Girls. I thought, “What in the world would a P!nk/Indigo Girls song sound like?” Plus, I was pretty sure it wasn’t a love letter to the dear Commander in Chief. So…I listened to it today and was pretty impressed. It’s hard not to be cynical about things like this, but I liked it.

I offer it up for your listening pleasure.

Dear Mr. President P!nk, Featuring Indigo Girls [Main Version]

Also, in completely unrelated news, please pray for my tooth community. I had a wisdom tooth extracted today. I just took a whopper of a pain pill and am ready to crash in front of my parents’ big screen TV.