Life Goes On

It's just after 10:00 at night.

The presidential election is being decided as I type.  It'll be a few hours before it's all settled.  I'm surprised at how close it is right now.  My son is worried about the results.  He's 13 and everything is so immediate, so urgent, so impossible, so he's worried.

I'm not.

The thing is, as far back as I can remember doomsayers have proclaimed that if this candidate or that wins, our country will crumble.  Various fates have been predicted.

And yet...

And yet...

Life goes on.

In the morning, when I wake and am bombarded by glee, misery, gloating, wound licking, and general post-election hangovery...I will still look for the hungry and try to feed them.  I will still do laundry.  I will bake cookies and play Candyland with Sprout.  I will empty the catbox and probably say a few cuss words as I clean up a puddle of pee from whichever cat has decided that litter boxes are for chumps.

I will play games on Facebook.

I will worry about bills.

I will plan dinner.

I will pester my children to do their chores, please, now, hey, chores, hello, can you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?

I will ask how I can help people who need helping and strive to embody compassion, love, kindness, patience, and even occasionally wisdom.  Sometimes I will succeed and sometimes I will fail and always I will hope and work to do better.

I will ask the gods to send the rain we've not had but desperately need.

I will watch National Geographic on Netflix and be thankful that my ex-husband lets us use his account so we can see so many beautiful and amazing things on our television.

I will crochet.

I will strive to help Cygnus walk his rocky path, and I will strive to walk mine with all the grace I can muster (scant though it be sometimes).

I will continue to love, as I always have.  Hatred is  cage in which I refuse to be captured.  I will love openly and freely and fiercely and madly and absolutely.

Nothing about this election can possibly change who I am at my core.  Nothing about any of the candidates or what the winner proclaims or attempts to keep or change about our laws, our nation, will alter one iota of my fundamental ME.

I will try, as always, to keep my integrity intact, and there's not a law on earth that can force me to do otherwise.

So, yes, life will go on.

It doesn't matter, this political brouhaha.

Life.  Goes.  On.

Just So You Know

I am for gay marriage.  I am for plural marriage.  I am for no marriage at all.  I am for people loving freely.  I am for leaving the defining of a relationship to those consenting adults in said relationship.  I am for keeping marriage a church function and permitting churches to dictate who may or may not marry within their religion.  I am for the state keeping itself right the hell out of that religious function.  I am for there being zero state benefit or sanction for marriage or dissolution of such bonds.  I am for their being zero state recognition, benefit, or sanction for any type of consenting adult relationship.  I am for laws that apply to everyone equally without differentiation between gender, sex, sexual preference, gods, goddesses, age, weight, height, skin color, hair color, eye color, nation of origin, or favorite shade of green.

I do not believe that the state has any business dictating religious rituals and I do not believe that any church has any business demanding that the state make exclusionary laws because that church may find certain kinds of love uncomfortable or icky.  I do not believe that it is legal or right to make laws that are pointed at only one segment of society for the purpose of denying them basic equality with the rest of society.

I believe that each person has a right to feel whatever they feel about relationships, but that their rights end where the rights of others begin - no one's fear or ignorance should be permitted to control the freedoms and rights of another.

I believe that if it is safe, sane, and consensual, there is no shame in loving...and there never should be.  I believe that love is mighty, and fearsome, and sometimes offensive to a few, but it should never be shackled or destroyed just to suit those who cannot or will not see that love, all love, is a gift that should be cherished and nurtured, not destroyed.

Right?

Rights are rights, right?  I mean...if we say that people have the right to free speech, we aren't saying only SOME people have that right...right?  We aren't saying that only the people we agree with may speak freely...right?  We aren't saying that free speech is only for people who say nice things, right?  We are saying that every person has a right to speak, plain and simple.  Rights are a sort of equal thing - woman, man, trans, gay, straight, bi, asexual, black, brown, white, whatever one's social status or financial status, whatever religion or politics one may practice...rights are rights.  Right?

So if I may speak freely, so should you be able to.  If you may marry and have protections and privileges under the law, so should I be able to.  If I may worship the grass or trees or whatever gods I please, so should you be able to.

The only time I can see rights not being rights are when they interfere with the rights of another - certainly, I may drink alcohol but to drive and endanger you is not acceptable.  Certainly I may own a firearm, but discharging it in a way that interferes with the life, liberty or other rights of another is not acceptable (unless in defense of my own life, or the lives of my family, but that's another question entirely...isn't it?).  That is part of living in a society, right?  We agree to certain behaviors and boundaries in exchange for the benefits that come with banding together?  But those behaviors and boundaries apply to everyone within the society, not just a select few, right?

I believe in equality.  I believe that there should be no laws or rights that only apply to some and not all.  I believe that to stand in favor of equality, to speak in favor of equality, to act in favor of equality, should not be some tremendous thing to be marveled at, and it should not be considered brave or dangerous, it shouldn't be frightening.  It should be as common as oxygen, and as essential.

So...why is it that rights aren't rights?  That's not right.

A Rare (Hah!) Political Rant

So much of what passes for politics these days is an expression of fear.  On either side of the line, people are fearful of what they could lose, of what they may have to accept, or what others may gain from them.  Fear becomes anger, becomes hatred, becomes a blinding unreason and goads people into believing what they would never  consider were they rooted in calmer thought.  Insults are hurled, and stones, and judgement.  Here's the thing - we all need to eat.  We all need shelter.  We all need water.  The sun shining on one group shines on another.  If the fear were gone, we could perhaps feel free to express our better selves, our compassionate selves, and move beyond these galvanizing polarities of Democrat, Republican, Tea Party, Libertarian, all so much of a muchness.

I am vociferous in my opinion of politicians.  All politicians.  I lump every one of them beyond the grassroots level into the category of Untrustworthy Manipulative Liars and Thieves.  There isn't a single one of them who has not lied to us, who has not been forsworn.  Oathbreakers, all of them, every President in my lifetime, every member of the House and the Senate, every Mayor, every Governor.

Of course I fear losing my freedom.  Equally, I fear losing my Self to the fear being flung will-he, nil-he into the world by people who will do whatever it takes to have their way.  I fear being blinded by an emotional response to an irrational  manipulation.

Once again, I remind you of what Sarah said to the Goblin King:  You have no power over me.



When we realize this...then we'll truly be free...and all of the politicking in the world won't be able to enslave us.

Questions, Questions...

Thank you for weighing in on the homes schooling issue - y'all are terrific!

Meanwhile, I have some questions. I must own up to no small amount of ignorance regarding the national debt issue. I have plenty of debt issues of my own to deal with, and all I understand about the whole national scene is that it would suck if the US didn't pay the water bill because turning Niagara Falls off means a huge deposit and it's a bitch to turn back on again - the valve gets stuck. Don't talk to me about the power bill...if we turn the national a/c to a warmer temperature, I'm pretty sure Kansas will burst into flames.

So...

Why did it take so long for Congress to figure out we have a debt and that it was reaching critical mass?

Why, when we have this monstrous debt, is Congress still worried about spending money on frivolous shit?

Why, when we have this monstrous debt, is Congress still getting raises?

Why is S&P to blame for saying our credit is somewhat less marvelous than it used to be? Isn't it? And what's the big deal about going from a AAA to a AA+ rating? I mean, it's not like they downgraded us to a Z- or something.

Is Congress unaware than when one spends more than one earns, one accrues debt? Because I'm a fiscal idiot, and I know that...

Shouldn't Congress be less concerned with the S&P rating and more concerned about this massive monkey in the room? Are they really mad that S&P simply pointed out that the Emperor's new clothes are somewhat less than the sartorial splendor we're supposed to see?

Why are we happy that China is buying our debt? Shouldn't we be worried? Also, shouldn't we be focusing on paying down our debt and not on whether China will keep buying it?

Why is Congress spending money like a broken water main gushing H2O when the rest of the nation is awfully thirsty??

Is China buying our debt different from making us a loan? It seems like it would be...

Or is it more like when you don't pay a credit card bill and the company sells your debt to a collection agency, and the agency can come after you for debt plus interest, or threaten to send Guido and Nunzio (or Cho Phan and Su Li, whatever) after you with a baseball bat/giant chop stick?

This whole thing seems stupid-simple to me - we owe money, so maybe we should quit spending it on crap we don't need until we can stand on our good credit again. Alas, the people in Washington forgot they were voted in and are actually supposed to represent us and not their bank accounts, which bank accounts are supported by lobbies, special interests, and the votes they buy with social programs funded by Somebody Else.

Can someone explain this to me, using small words and simple phrases??

Surprised? Hardly. Dismayed? You Could Call It That...

...but outraged would be a better description.

Gettin' a little political, here...

Y'all, I don't want to appear to be beating a dead horse...and I don't want anyone thinking I am against government or all about lawlessness, anarchy, and other social bugaboos...but if this shit keeps happening, how the heck can we call ourselves a nation of laws?

Go read the story...I'll wait.

Don't want to link-hop? Skip to mah loo (or to the summary below).

You may find it helpful to go read the original story if you don't want my hashed-up retelling...again, I'll wait...

OK, here's the summary: A man is sleeping in his home in a not-as-nice-as-he'd-like-it-to-be neighborhood. His wife and one of their young sons are at home as well. His wife cries out that they are being invaded by armed men. Home invasions are not uncommon. The man is an ex-Marine, trained to think and act quickly in combat/tense situations. Intent on protecting his family, he gets his (legally owned) weapon. The safety is on. He never fires a shot. The men breaking into his home fire a collective 70 times. He is left for more than an hour in his home, bleeding to death, his wife and child held outside and unable to offer comfort or say farewell, while the men who shot him will not permit paramedics to attend to him and possibly (although probably not) save his life. A man who served his nation and sought only to keep his family safe dies alone in his own home.

Had this been a movie, the men who broke into the house would be Bad Guys, and Bruce Willis would kick their collective asses for two hours, with a grand finale of several explosions and at least one gruesome but totally karmic impalement.

Instead, it had a rather different ending.

The SWAT team was exonerated of any wrongdoing. Never mind they lied about him firing the first shot (the safety was engaged, remember) or that they found absolutely nothing in his home to indicate drugs, home invasions, or any of their other cocked-up bullshit about why this man's home needed breaking into. Never mind that they let a man bleed to death alone, unsuccored, for over an hour. Never mind that they sealed records after the fact to keep the public from learning about what happened, and almost immediately started a smear campaign to villainize the victim. Never mind that they didn't even know his child was in the home and entered with guns blazing. Never mind that not one person has owned up to what really happened to an innocent man, the participants instead seeking to justify or shift blame rather than face the consequences of their actions. They were exonerated.

Again, I pose the question - is it any wonder that the majority of the people living in this country either distrust, dislike, or outright hate law enforcement? How can we trust law enforcement to self-regulate, when it is the norm to say that they are not to blame for raiding the wrong home, for destroying property and lives, that there is no accountability?

Who watches the watchers??

To paraphrase Goldie Hawn in Protocol...I'm watching...like a hawk...

And one day? The governed will no longer consent to give these people their just powers...and then what?

So What's Different?

Gettin' political, y'all...
~~~~~
Osama Bin Laden is dead.

Huh.

And this changes what, exactly?

Is the "war" over, now? Can all the men and women putting themselves in harm's way come home?

Yeah, I thought not.

It's never been about old Osama Yo Mama.

It's about the oil, and the balance of power, and votes, and retaining power by instilling fear in the populace while simultaneously thieving away our liberties. Not that I have an opinion, or anything.

I'm sorry, y'all, but Bin Laden was one man among many, and all I can muster up at the news of his demise is a half-hearted "So what?".

I am wondering if there will be any political repercussions for Pakistan, for harboring him...in a million-dollar mansion, no less.

Wait, what am I saying? Of course not. No one believes in consequences, any more.

Why Politicians Should Stop Calling Casa de Crazy

The caller was polite enough, and human for a change.

Lately, it has been computers, auto-dialing and playing pre-recorded messages touting one candidate over another in the coming elections.

I was so surprised to hear a human voice, I interrupted him to remark on it - "Holy carp, an actual human!!"

He chuckled, understanding my surprise.

He asked if his candidate could count on my vote.
~~~~~
Here begins a small flight of fancy (wherein I may use a naughty word or three...).

"What's it worth to you?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"My vote...what's it worth? Ten grand?"

"Are you offering to sell your vote?"

"Yep. What's it worth?"

"You disgust me! You don't deserve your freedom..."

"Can it. First of all, my family's finances are in the shitter thanks to people like your candidate, who bother us day and night with phone calls soliciting votes, recordings so full of hot air they make the AC kick on. There's not a single politician in this country that I'd trust any farther than I could throw a bag of fertilizer, which is the end result of all that bullshit they spew anyway. They're all liars, thieves, and cheats, out to serve themselves, and will say whatever it takes to get into office where they will seek only to serve themselves.

Secondly, I'm not sure it makes any difference who I vote for, the result will be the same - another asshole in office who doesn't give a plugged nickel for the people who voted for him, some jerk who's out to serve his own interests and the lobbyists who paid to put him there. So I may as well get something for my trouble.

Third, the people of this nation have been bled dry by people like your candidate, fed on empty promises, their hopes and dreams ground into bitter dust beneath the feet of politicians who swear oaths of service and are forsworn before their words have settled into memory. I foresee a time when the people of this nation will say "Enough!" and send all the politicians packing. We've reached the breaking point; we can't bear another tax, another stupid law, another self-aggrandizing gas-bag explaining why it's so important to waste the dollars squeezed from us on another frivolous, useless personal project that we can plainly see is meant only to distract us. We're fed an unending diet of cell phones, mindless games, movies, television shows, radio talk shows, social networks, manufactured wars and news stories, and blogs meant to set us against each other and keep us from noticing how we're being raked over the coals. It's bread and circuses, though, and we've come the the end of our patience with this diet of hot air.

So yes, I'll sell my vote for cash to the highest bidder and laugh my ass off when he's crushed with the rest of the vermin when we roll over Washington and reclaim what was once our birthright - our freedom, the very freedom you say I don't deserve, but has in fact been whittled and chipped away into nonexistence by unscrupulous men like your precious candidate who use words like "god" and "freedom" while laughing out the sides of their mouths, and which I will see restored to myself, my family, and my nation."

Here ends the flight of fancy.
~~~~~
In reality, I told the polite fellow I wasn't sure who I would vote for. He offered to answer any questions I may have about his candidate.

I asked how he felt about home schooling. He supports it, as well as reform within the educational system.

I asked how he stood on legalizing marijuana (at least for medical use). He's against it.

I thought about asking how the candidate felt about the recently proposed amendment to the Georgia constitution that would define a person's right to life as beginning at inception and ending in their natural death, and how that proposed amendment will impact Georgia's death penalty (because last time I checked, death by lethal injection, electric chair, hanging , firing squad, a steady diet of reality TV, or whatever method they use these days, do not count as "natural" in any sense of the word), not to mention how such an amendment would impact a woman's right to life if the foetus she's carrying could be the death of her (rare, yes, but it does happen...and I continue to hope I won't have to make the rather horrifying choice between having a baby and dying, or not having a baby and living with the choices I've made), but then I decided to give the poor man a break...he was just some poor schlubb volunteer and didn't deserve a dose of my irritation at the constant interruptions these phone calls bring my life, nor would he have an answer for my current disillusionment and sense of futility towards our political system and the people who frolic within it.

I think he was happy to end the call.

And I still don't know who I'll vote for...nor am I certain it will even make a difference. I have had a few mad moments when I considered just letting the Evil Genius push random buttons - these days, I feel as though it'd be much of a muchness.

So tell me - if you've made it this far - do you still believe in our system? Or are you laboring under the weight of this ennui that has gripped so many of us of late?

Aww, Poor baby*

*Best if read while dripping with sarcasm.

I just read a headline that says "President's Hourly Pay Isn't So Great: If you factor in all of the time that he puts in, Barack Obama's salary works out to only $45.63 an hour."

Really? Is that all? Poor baby...imagine only making $45.63 an hour, with your meagre benefits being a large, fully furnished house, an on-call chef, personal security, limousines and aircraft of several varieties at your disposal, the best health care available in the world, Camp David for vacationing in, laundry service, and your every need and/or whim met almost before you know you have one. Let's have a fund raiser, shall we?

Pfft. And tch. And bah!

Hey, Y'all, Watch This!!

I'm going to be a little shameless for a moment. I had the honor of recording some tracks for a friend's video. He finished it and posted it on YouTube, and I sent the link to The Hermit, because the tone of the video fits in beautifully (I think) with his blog and world view. I I'm posting it now because he's already posted it on his site, so now it's fair game. The video is political, and maybe it'll offend some folks...but I also think it's powerful and a message that is worth hearing and sending to any one who holds public office. It's We the People, not You, the Politicians, and everyone will benefit if we can remember and remind others of that.

So...give it a listen and feel free to tell me what you think - good, bad, indifferent, I'm happy to hear from you.



I doubled B's vocals on melody and did high and low harmonies, in case you were wondering.

I'm hoping this thing will go viral...so feel free to pass it along.

A Letter to the President

It's a rerun, I know, but I mean it enough to post it twice - with an addition or two.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Mr. President,

Please remember that our wonderful nation is founded on the basic principal that government is not here to protect us from ourselves, to regulate us into submission, or to quash our freedoms; it exists to help us maintain our freedoms and to ensure that we are equal under the law.

Please remember that we are a disparate people, passionate about many things, but we are all Americans and deserve to be treated with dignity and concern by the people we've elected to watch out for us while we go about the business of raising our families, enriching our nation, and living our lives.

Remember that you made promises, and whether I like them or not, you should be a man of your word. You should not permit yourself to be forsworn for expedience' sake, nor for fear of what others may think of you, nor to curry favor with people in positions of power. You represent us, all of us, not your own small interests.

When you put yourself forward for this office, you handed the reins of your life over to We, the People - don't forget that.

Remember that it says "Freedom of...", not "Freedom from..." and try to take it to heart.

Try to maintain the dignity of your office and remember that there is always someone watching, someone listening, someone who knows what you are doing, someone taking notes and recording.

Remember, thou art mortal.

I wish you luck in the next four years - we are an obstreperous, rowdy bunch to manage, and we're awfully unapologetic about it; you've got your work cut out for you, and I don't envy you one little bit.

Shade and Sweetwater,
K

Bailout

Less than thirty seconds to go (as of this writing) and the talking heads are saying "Well the vote will probably stay open longer to give everyone a chance to make up their minds, figure out how they'll vote, talk to anyone on the fence and try to convince them..."

Umm, excuse me?? No...no, I don't think so.

My dear congresspersons - you knew damn well when this vote was coming. If you couldn't shift your ass on in to vote when it was time...too fucking bad. If it was important, you would have been there on time, ready to go.

Not that I feel strongly about this or anything.

A Bump Along the Way

I was going to make today's post all about my (probably skewed) resoning behind home-schooling, but I've got something else on my mind.

It's bothering me more that just a little.

There's a seventeen-year-old girl, barely more than a child herself, who is pregnant. More than one - if I made a modicum of effort, I imagine I'd find a statistic for how many pregnant teens there are today, this week, this month, this year, at any given time. Still, even without using her name I bet you know who I'm talking about.

It isn't a surprise that she's pregnant - kids that age are more likely to have sex than not, no matter what they're taught in school (abstinence, birth control, chastity belt, cooter trolls...you know, the usual stuff). Even if they aren't having sex, they're learning about fun-with-anatomy one way or another.

I'm all for adults having all the sex they want as long as their partner is able to choose participation. I don't much care if it's gay, straight, bi, vanilla, or kinky, as long as it's safe, sane, and consensual.

So here we are with a seventeen-year-old girl, pregnant. On any other day, this wouldn't matter...but poor kid, her mother was chosen to be the VP running mate in a hotly contested presidential race, and she, her siblings, and the father of the impending babe are all being put under a magnifying glass.

Things are being said. Awful things. Judgmental things. Things about her mother's fitness for the position she hopes to hold. Things about the girl. About her boyfriend. About the infant already challenging the family with Down's Syndrome.

She's seventeen and pregnant, and facing something a lot bigger than any election - she's facing the future. At her age, that can be terrifying. That future, at least the next few years, is bound to be full of censure, full of people who feel free to frown, to judge, and even to try and punish her for her error.

And it will all be so very public. So very wrong.

I do not advocate teen pregnancy - the body may be fertile, but that doesn't mean it's ready to bear young. The mind isn't all the way there, yet - no matter how willing you are to have one, babies are a culture shock all their own - just ask my friend S, who had her first child at sixteen and raised all three of her kids while her husband was in the Navy (thanks for serving, B) - there was no lack of love, no lack of support from both families, and they were going to marry and have kids anyway, but the early start certainly didn't make things easy for them.

I do advocate a community being supportive of anyone who's carrying a sprout in 'em. Pregnancy is no easy thing - if you doubt me, ask a woman who is only a week or so from popping how she's feeling about the experience...especially the swelling, aching, lack of sleep, creaking bones, and odd there's-an-alien-trying-to-escape-my-innards motions that she's feeling every time she eats, drink, sleep, goes potty, breathes, or has a thought. Yes, it's a beautiful thing, and no, I wouldn't have given up the experience, but it isn't all sunshine and roses...and that's with a family and community on board with the pregnancy.

This girl, she has one hellacious ride ahead of her - and it's all going to be investigated, inspected, invaded by the press and the judgmental public.

Y'all, leave the kid out if this. Yes, what she does may reflect her mother's ability to parent...and some may even say that reflects her ability to help run a nation...but why should the child suffer for it? Why should she be punished? Why should she be mocked, trotted out for show, dragged into the political muck? Why should the young man who helped create the baby have to be pulled from his roots to wander around in a hateful, spiteful environment at once apologizing, taking responsibility, and trying to put a positive political spin on things? They should be at home, trying to figure out their future, their baby's future, without all this scrutiny...just like any other teen couple facing this momentous event.

Yell at her mother, revile her mother, say what you will about her mother - her mother is a grown woman who freely chose to cast her hat into the political ring, thereby inviting the press, the public, and her rivals to investigate and voice their opinion about the minutiae of her life - but leave the kids out of it. All of 'em, on both sides - after all, it's not the kids who will be doing the job (please don't lecture me on how they will still be representing our nation, yada, yada, yada - I know they will, but they're still kids, and kids get to make mistakes and learn from them and expecting perfection is expecting too much)(and I never think a baby is a mistake, just so we're clear).

In future, when the media tries to cram this girl down my throat, along with a heavy dose of vitriol about her mother and/or judgment of the family, I am going to close my eyes, cover my ears, and sing "la, la,la, la, la, la, la...." as loud as I can until it stops.

As an aside - I'm tired of all the hate. Just once in my lifetime, can we have an election where the candidates don't sling mud? Where they are allowed to show what they've accomplished rather than forced to defend their errors, thoughts, feelings, families, churches, misspent youths, that one party in college, or anything else? Please?