On the verge

On the verge of graduating, never setting foot inside another classroom again, having to make life-changing decisions, and occassional free time. Scary stuff. Just push me over the edge, I'm sick of hanging out here! Only a few more weeks . . .

On a happier note, Bush's approval rating is at 34%! Happy happy joy joy! The American public is finally realizing what a douchebag they elected as president! I can't wait until the '06 and '08 elections.

I don't blame him

If you're in Atlanta, you heard about the horde of teenagers causing a truck driver to flip his truck with fireworks and huge rocks on the 4th of July. They then proceeded to pull him out of the truck through the busted windshield, steal his wallet, taunt, and hit him as he lay there bleeding. One person in the group tried to comfort him:

A young woman came to him and told him to calm down . . . telling him that Jesus would protect him.

"I didn't want to hear that. I wanted to get out of there."

Damn straight. Where was Jesus when those assholes decided it was a good idea to throw football-sized rocks at a truck carrying deisel fuel? I don't get how stuff like this happens!

In other news, how the hell is Karl Rove dodging this bullet? I guess if you repeat the same lies over and over again, they'll eventually stick. I guess the other side will have to keep repeating the truth until we get some results from this investigation.

The chosen ones

I have loved these lyrics from this first moment I heard them, and I think they sum up how I feel about a lot of the problems going on in our country right now:

God made us number one 'cause he loves us the best
Well he should go bless someone else for a while and give us a rest

Amen, Ben Folds.

Hear that, wacko Christian Right? We're sick of listening to your bullshit, especially when you can't even live up to your own Puritan moral standards. That is all.

Scare Tactics

When I read Jim Wooten's columns in the AJC, it is either the most painful part of my day, or a time when I get a hearty laugh at how ridiculous he is. You'd think they could get a reasonable conservative columnist, but they prefer someone who sensationalizes and doesn't rely on logic very often. In today's column, Jim makes the following statement:

"Tell children repeatedly that they are victims of discrimination, that 'the system' is arrayed against them, that their offenses will be punished more harshly because of their race, religion or national origin, and they will never be quite at home in America and, in the extreme, a Brian Nichols."

This made me cringe. I don't think he understands how harmful and divisive a statement like this really is. Essentially, if you think you might somehow be affected by a system that regularly discriminates because of any number of factors, you aren't really American (in the true sense of the word) and your anger at your treatment by this "system" might cause you to kill a bunch of people. Well, shit, I'd better ignore the fact that I'm not taken seriously in the workplace because I'm a woman, or just let it slide that an African-American man will get pulled over and searched while a Caucasian man speeds by. If I ignore that, I'll be a more content person, and I won't feel the need to shoot anyone.

Wooten would rather people be content with their lot in life. I was in a meeting at work earlier today in which a gentleman made a great analogy. He was talking about Georgia's laws regarding workers rights, and how the state claims to treat workers and employers equally (ie, workers can leave a job any time they like, and employers can fire an employee any time they like). He likened this situation to one where a poor man and a rich man both have equal opportunity to buy a loaf of bread. Yes, of course, they can both go to the store, pick up the loaf, bring it to the register, and pay for it, but one has the means to and the other doesn't. The conservative inherently makes this false assumption that everyone has the same chance, everyone is considered equally . . . but in reality they are not.

People make statements like the Wooten quote above and it makes me so angry that they don't get it. I have had so many more opportunities in my life than the homeless guy I see on the street every morning walking to work. Sure, we both have a chance to get an education. Sure, we both have equal chance to get jobs. But, I have had everything handed to me and he has had nothing handed to him. Can I really fault him for that? Can I fault him for being angry because he's more likely to be hassled by law enforcement than myself, the white woman? I can't.

The other issue brought up by this Brian Nichols case is that of the 51 year old deputy who he first attacked. I've heard so many people blaming her, the underpaid, overworked grandmother. How can it be her fault that she was assigned to escort Brian Nichols to his trial that morning? Is it her fault that it's policy for a deputy escorting an inmate to carry a gun? Is it her fault that even though extra security was requested by Judge Barnes, none was provided? She did the best she could, tried to fight him off before he nearly bludgeoned her to death, yet she is being blamed. She did not make the decisions that put her in that situation that morning, and changes should (and will) be made to better protect anyone coming to the Fulton County Courthouse. It's a real tragedy that so many circumstances allowed Brian Nichols to act out the way he did, and I feel so horribly for the four families affected. Hopefully this case will spur quick action to fix these seemingly common sense problems with courthouse security.

Just a normal day at the office

I love living in the city, but every once in a while you are exposed to the worst that society has to offer. I hope they catch this murderer/rapist who is running around town in a stolen car. This morning I had no idea that as I was walking to work, I was walking right past the area where he was carjacking people just after he shot and killed three. It's kind of scary, but hopefully he will be caught and no one else hurt.

Every time a big crime happens in the city, I think that maybe I'll become disenchanted with living downtown, but it hasn't happened yet. I'm not sure what it is about the city, but I love being in the middle of it all, good and bad.

Um, yeah . . .

So it appears that I've done a great job of keeping up this blog! It's only been a month since I last updated, and that's not so bad. Things with work and school are keeping me busy, and the personal life is mentally and emotionally exhausting as of late. On the bright side, work has been very fulfilling in the last couple of weeks, I'll have a break from school in two weeks (!), and hopefully the personal drama is taken care of for the time being.

Of course, I'm writing this now even though I have a paper due tomorrow that's not even close to being finished. I guess that's typical for me. I just wanted to get some thoughts down about this scandal that's brewing in the White House. It is beyond me that the mainstream media has not given more attention to the Jeff Gannon/James Guckert story. A major breach in White House security, a possible White House plant in its Press Corps, a real life whore being the Bush Administration's whore. How could you possibly ask for a juicier story? But, the powers that control the media don't want Bush getting bad press, so they just say the word and nobody knows about it. If Clinton were in office and the media discovered a fake reporter planted in the White House Press Corps to lob softball questions at the Press Secretary, heads would fly. Impeachment proceedings would begin. But W has never been held accountable for anything before; I suppose it's unreasonable for me to hope now the "free press" would do its job and get some answers to the questions that every person in this nation should be asking.

I know that Gannon/Guckert's former job as a prostitute should not be the focus of this story. Now, who knows what the situation is with his sexuality. He was selling his body to men, but probably not living his life as an openly gay man. Regardless, his employer (GOPUSA and Talon News) spewed hatred about the "gay agenda" in the US. It blows my mind when I see a Jeff Gannon or a Mary Cheney sit back and watch as their family/employer spew hatred at the gay population. Not only do they allow those closest to them to do so, but they join in as well. Now obviously Mary Cheney and Jeff Gannon are two completely different cases - but their complacency with being second-class citizens and hurting those in the same position as them - that I do not understand.

Those who rush to Gannon's defense claim that liberal bloggers just wanted to "out" him to the world. I'm sorry, but when you put naked pictures of yourself on hotgaymilitarystud.com, you've pretty much outed yourself. Anyone could have accessed this information before; however, his ability to skirt around normal security procedures kept Secret Service and the FBI from doing a complete background check. This would have blown up in his face sooner or later, whether or not the liberal bloggers got on the case.

Well, in closing, please learn all you can about this case and pass it along to friends. The only way to get this covered by the Media is to tell more people about it, and to contact your local papers/TV stations. Something has to come of this.

New Book

Yesterday I picked up a copy of Barack Obama's book, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. It's the first book I have bought for pleasure reading in at least a year. Of course I'm already a huge Obama fan, and after seeing him speak at a book signing on CSPAN, I had the urge to find out more about him.

I've only read the first two chapters, but it's already fascinating. He and his family are really what the United States is all about - they are a true melting pot. Reading memoirs like this give me faith that no matter how hard our political leaders try to divide the population, the diversity of the US will eventually win out in the end. Eventually we'll all be mutts, and there won't be these harsh racial lines upon which to judge others. I'll be posting my thoughts on the rest of the book as I read it. I'm hoping to finish it by the end of the week, before school gets too intense.