My .04, adjusted for inflation. I'm a writer living in the Atlanta, Georgia area. I write about anything and everything from the point of view of a Christian conservative, and I try to keep it honest.
Today is one of those days that I’m writing just because I said I was going to write every day, no matter what. So I’m not really sure what I am writing about. This may be just a stream of consciousness entry, where I write down whatever comes into my head and it may or may not make any sense.
Our church’s (very small) Young Adult group decreased by one as we held a good-bye dinner for a young lady that is leaving. She is Brazilian, and tomorrow she will take a non-stop flight from here to Rio to see her mother . . . and then hop a plane to Ireland, where she plans to study English. I think it’s funny that she is going to Ireland to study English. She’s young, unmarried, knows at least two languages, if not more, and has a kind and adventurous spirit. She’d also like to travel while she’s in Ireland. Now’s the time for her to do it!
The 118th House apparently showed up wearing their Bozo the clown outfits. They’ve taken six ballots, and they still have no Speaker of the House, which means the new 118th House members cannot be sworn in yet. It’s the first time in 100 years where there has been more than one ballot to elect a Speaker. Kevin McCarthy wants the job. There are those that don’t want him to have the job. Frankly, I think the House is acting like a bunch of two-year-olds, and I apologize for the insult to two-year-olds.
We have not seen rats or mice since we returned home from Florida. Which probably means that I will find a trail of rat poop somewhere tomorrow morning.
I am officially back at work; I finished proofreading 221 pages and promptly got another assignment of around 250 pages which is due back Friday. I will be working all day Thursday.
Because of all the holidays my husband has taken, all of the traveling we have done, and the fact that the calendar has rolled over, my own internal calendar is shot. It will probably take me a week or so to get a feel for what day it is . . . just in time for Martin Luther King Day to show up and wreck my internal calendar again. (No shade meant for MLK, who definitely deserves his day of remembrance. I’m just having a rough time remembering what day of the week it is!)
I’m still stuck on giving my antagonist in my work in progress a reason not to shoot my protagonist. This is one of those things that drives writers crazy.
And I still need to close out our financial books for the last year.
As members of the Peanuts gang would say, “Sigh.” Or maybe, “Good grief!” would be a better exclamation!
At the end of 2020, I stayed up until midnight just to make sure that 2020 went away. I know that's superstitious, that a calendar is going to change whether I'm awake or asleep. But 2020 was one of those years where you wanted to make sure that it went away and never came back.
However, today I read an alleged quote from the diary of Czar Nicholas II saying, "The year 1916 was cursed; 1917 will surely be better!" (I've done a quick Google search and can't verify that this was an actual quote from his diary.) But for those of you well-versed in history, 1917 was about as bad as you could get in Russia. That was the year of the Russian Revolution, and among its victims were the Czar and his family, who were deposed and placed under house arrest. They were all executed in 1918.
2020 seemed to be cursed with the arrival of COVID, racial unrest, and a hotly contested election. But at the end of 2020, we had a vaccine and we'd elected a new president. Surely 2021 would surely be better, right?
Riiiiight.
2021 saw a riot at the US Capitol aimed at stopping Congress from certifying election results and placing Donald Trump back in power. It saw numerous dates when Donald Trump would be "reinstated" as president. I think Trump has given up on being "reinstated" and is now putting his energy into running for president again in 2024.
Beginning in April, I heard so many reports of people getting shot that a day without a shooting was odd.
Our country is pulling further and further apart.
And although there is a vaccine for COVID now, there's a sizable, vocal group of people refusing to take it in the name of "freedom". (This is different from those who cannot take it due to medical reasons.)
COVID has proved to be a sneaky little virus. It's mutated into versions from Alpha to, now, Omicron, (skipping Nu and Xi). Omicron is labeled as "mild", but if a "mild" version of COVID was anything like what I had in September, it is not something I want to go through again. Yes, I was vaccinated. I had a breakthrough case. Both my son and I tested positive, and I'm convinced all of us were ill, even though my husband, through a mix-up, wasn't able to get the results of his first test and had to be tested again and tested negative. We are learning the Greek alphabet whether we want to or not.
We still have racial strife simmering beneath the surface, and Joe Biden has not proved to be the "problem solver" that everyone wanted. To be fair, Biden inherited a mess from his predecessor, and no one person can meet everyone's expectations.
And the "I" word, "inflation" has entered the national discourse again, with the press screaming about "the highest inflation rates since the end of Carter's term and the beginning of Reagan's." (I notice that the press isn't commenting very much on the days in the 1970's of double-digit inflation and double-digit interest rates.)
I'm not sure if this is a sign of the year to come, but yesterday, our church met solely online due to the sharp rise in COVID cases in GA. We plan to meet in person next week, but I will not be shocked if we end up going back to online church if COVID rates keep rising.
And anyone who tells me that because I wear a mask and have gotten my shots that I am "living in fear," my answer is: Taking precautions is NOT "living in fear". It is being prudent. Living by "faith, not fear" does NOT include putting God to the test. Remember, one of the temptations of Jesus was Satan telling him to jump off of the temple, because God would catch him. Jesus' retort was that you should not put the Lord to the test!
In November, mid-term elections will happen; and we here in Georgia are gearing up for what is predicted to be a contentious governor's race.
So will this be a happy new year?
Most of that is going to depend on my attitude, I admit. I am happily married, I have a son I am very proud of, we are able to pay our bills and we have friends. There are plenty of blessings I can count.
But after 2020 and 2021, the fact that 2022 is pronounced "2020-too" sounds rather ominous to me.
While writing for the Louisville Courier-Journal, the late columnist Joe Creason told an amusing story that speaks to where we are today as a country.
Two candidates running for office in Kentucky traveled up and down the states, ripping each other verbally to shreds as they did their campaigning. One day, they were both campaigning at a rally in am in a Kentucky town.
One of the candidates had a habit of taking a drink of bourbon before getting up and speaking. The rally was outside, it was a hot day, and the candidate was not wearing a hat. The heat made the bourbon inside him act up, and suddenly, the candidate became sick in front of the entire audience.
When he recovered, he stepped up to the platform, held up both hands, and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, this just proves what I have been saying all over Kentucky. The man just plain makes me sick to my stomach!"
Yeah, that pretty much sums things up, doesn't it? "The other guy just plain makes me sick to my stomach!"
There is another part of this story that also speaks to where we are as a country, or rather, where we are not as a country.
Creason described the two men who traveled all over Kentucky verbally ripping each other to shreds on the campaign trail as "warm friends who often traveled to campaign sites in the same car." (I cannot remember if he was referring to an automobile or a railroad car.)
Does anyone remember the days when Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill battled it out in the political arena; Ronald Reagan as President and Tip O'Neill as Speaker of the House? Reagan and O'Neill stood firmly on opposite sides of the political spectrum . . . and at the end of the day, would sit down and have a beer together.
Contrast that with our current President and Speaker, who haven't spoken to each other in a year.
Contrast that with the current division in our country, where the results of Election Day 2020 shows a country almost evenly split down the middle, with some friends and family barely speaking to each other, if at all; with people fearing that the wrong word could ignite an argument, or that posting the wrong thing on social media will get you canceled.
Is this what we have come to?
Where we are so entrenched in our beliefs and our opinions that we will not even entertain that the other side might just have a point?
In this environment, two opponents for political office can't be warm friends who travel together to the same campaign venue. They can only be two people who verbally rip each other to shreds, both on and off the campaign trail.
At 10 a.m. on Monday, October 5, 2020, Chief Justice John Roberts will mount the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Dressed in a black robe, followed by seven others dressed in black robes, he will bang his gavel, call the court to order, and issue the following proclamations:
Abortion is now illegal.
Roe v. Wade has been overturned.
Gays can no longer marry.
Transgenders no longer have job protection.
Blacks can no longer vote.
The South can revert back to Jim Crow.
From the way people are reacting to the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, that is exactly what it going to happen.
Monday, October 5, 2020, 10 a.m. is when the new session of the Supreme Court will convene. It will do so without Ginsburg, who died on Friday after a battle with pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer is an awful disease, and I am glad she is no longer suffering with it.
Her death has sparked discussions about her legacy (there was a time in this country where a married woman couldn't open a bank account without her husband co-signing, for example.)
Her death has also sparked near-panic among many in social media.
Because now, there is a new spot on the SCOTUS, and there's a rush to fill it with a conservative justice before the November elections.
Never mind that the party rushing to fill the vacancy is the same party that insisted that a SCOTUS vacancy under Obama shouldn't be filled until after that particular upcoming election.
The last I checked, the SCOTUS does not have the power to unilaterally grant or take away the rights that I just listed above. Chief Justice Roberts does not have the power to bang a gavel and say that gays can't marry, for example.
What the SCOTUS does have the power to do is to listen to a case and decide what the law is. Granted, the SCOTUS has made some dreadful decisions in the past. No pun intended, but the Dred Scott decision comes to mind; also, Plessy v. Ferguson.
The SCOTUS has also responded to changing times and bad decisions with decisions that reversed previous rulings; probably Brown v. Board of Education is the most famous.
But Brown, and Roe, and others had to follow a long process to get to the SCOTUS.
This isn't the time to panic. If you are genuinely worried about the direction the country is going in, educate yourself, make plans to vote in November, follow the docket of the SCOTUS, and write your representatives. And if you're genuinely afraid of the direction the country is heading -- and a majority of people are afraid -- then start looking for another country to call your own. Maybe that is the best case for some who are able to do it.
Panic feeds on panic, and it's panic that leads to bad decisions and ultimately to mob rule. I don't want to live under mob rule, but I fear that in these days of social media cancel culture and fake news, it may happen.
I have decided who I am going to vote for in 2020.
Pig-Pen.
Yes, THAT Pig-Pen, the dirt-loving character from Peanuts.
Frankly, I can't find a candidate that is worth voting for and who will help bring this country together.
I wrote this morning on my Facebook page that in the last year, I have seen posts from Christians that have made me think that if they met each other in the hallway, they would come to blows. I saw it last year during the Kavanaugh hearings, and this morning, I saw it again between two Christians talking about certain new immigration policies.
Trump isn't the Messiah. Get over it. Trump isn't the Antichrist. Get over it.
Trump is not the fulfillment of any sort of Biblical prophecy. Please, for the love of all things holy, DO NOT quote me that verse about Cyrus. While it's true that God can use whoever he wants whenever he wants, trying to fit Donald Trump into the verse that prophesies about Cyrus the king is like trying to put a square peg into a round hole. (And while these rocket scientists COULD "put a square peg into a round hole", us trying to do it with Biblical prophecy is a misuse of Scripture. Period.)
And those of you that tell me that Trump is a baby Christian?
I've been hearing that for three years now. I see no fruit of the Spirit. I see no increasing faith, goodness, brotherly kindness, etc.
"But the economy's good!"
How many people said that when Bill Clinton was president as an excuse to overlook his behavior?
"But at least he tells it like it is!"
Uh, there are ways he can tell it like it is without coming off as a total buffoon.
If this is the price that we have had to pay for a conservative SCOTUS, that price is too high. The Democrats want free stuff for everyone and they want the rich to pay for it. The Republicans . . . well, I'm not sure what they want, outside of a good economy.
Neither party is doing their job. So my vote is going to Pig-Pen to clean up government!
Unless Mighty Mouse swoops in and saves the day, we are 15 and a half hours away from a government shutdown. Since my husband is a government employee, he will be placed on furlough and he will not get a paycheck until the government reopens.
We have already bought Christmas presents and Christmas dinner, and we have savings, assets, and a full pantry. I can still proof, and my husband will qualify for unemployment. And if the situation gets dire, we have good friends. My husband and I will be fine.
The whole issue boils down to Donald Trump saying, "I want money to build my wall, and if I don't get it, I'll hold my breath until I turn blue!"
Congress: "Inhale, Mr. President. Our favorite shades of blue are azure, turquoise, cobalt, and navy."
There is a reason why I refer to the children -- er, Congress, and why our President should probably be referred to as the toddler-in-chief.
My disgust for American politics has reached a new high. Or low, depending on your perception.
When evangelical Christians decided that political power was the most expedient way to achieve their ends, they struck a Faustian bargain.
Now Mephistopheles has come to collect.
Tomorrow, the voters of Alabama go to the polls to elect a U.S. Senator in a special election to fill the Senate seat left vacant by Jeff Sessions. The two candidates are Alabama judge Roy Moore for the Republicans and former U.S. Attorney Doug Jones for the Democrats.
Last month, several women came forward and accused Moore of sexual misconduct. One of the women was 14 at the time that she said Moore dated her. During one of their dates, she said, he approached her while wearing tight underwear and guided her hand to touch his private parts.
Okay, when I hear the word, "date", here's what I envision:
A man calls a woman and asks her out on a date. He picks her up. They go to dinner. Maybe they go to a movie. Or to a play. Or to some other event. They talk. He pays for dinner or for the other events. He takes her home. If they had a good time, they repeat the process. Lather, rinse, repeat until a) they decide they want to get married, or b) one, the other, or both decide they don't want to date each other anymore.
Nowhere in that description do the words "guiding your hand to touch my private parts" appear.
There's questions as to whether or not the women are telling the truth. There's speculation as to why they waited until now to tell their story.
It's legitimate to ask, are their stories true? I do believe they should be taken seriously because they do involve a man who has power in the legal system and who wants to be entrusted with the duties of a United States Senator.
I also think it's legitimate to ask, why come forward now? while bearing in mind that there are good reasons why victims of sexual assault don't report it at the time it happened. (I almost said "women". Men are also victims of sexual assault; in fact, actor Terry Crews has filed a lawsuit against a man that he alleges groped him at a party in 2016.)
My main problem with this whole scenario is the reaction of some Christians: Well, maybe Moore did do what he's accused of, but hey, he's pro-life and Doug Jones is pro-abortion, and if Jones gets elected, it'll mean another liberal in the Senate, so Moore needs to be elected to the Senate. Besides, not only is he pro-life, he's a godly man who defended the Ten Commandments, even though it got him thrown off the bench in Alabama.
To borrow a Southernism, that dog don't hunt.
I am sick and tired of the bad behavior of our elected officials being condoned because he's "our guy". People did it with Bill Clinton, they did it with Donald Trump, and now they're doing it with Roy Moore.
It's even worse with those that call themselves Christians. Apparently, we have decided that someone's position on abortion trumps all (pun only slightly intended.) If you hold yourself out as being Christian and pro-life, you can get away with just about anything.
Please do not give me this nonsense about "everyone makes mistakes". A "mistake" is taking the wrong exit off of I-285. Or adding up two and three and getting six.
And please, do not tell me, "But David sinned and God used him!" Yes, David in the Bible sinned. Yes, God used him. However, 1) David repented (see Psalm 51) and 2) God, through the prophet Nathan, told David, "the sword will never depart from your house". David's son conceived with Bathsheba died. His daughter Tamar was raped by her half-brother Amnon. Tamar's brother Absalom murdered Amnon in revenge. Absalom tried to take the kingdom from David. David paid a tremendous price for his sin.
When did we decide that the kingdom of God was best advanced by political power and political expediency? When did we decide that someone's position on abortion--as serious an issue as it is--outweighed everything else that a person did or said? When did we decide that having people that support "us" in positions of power was more important than holding those people accountable for what they did and said?
Tomorrow, the voters of Alabama will go to the polls. I fully expect to see Mephistopheles standing there grinning with his hand held out, demanding payment.
One of my FB friends recently posted that he was not going to listen to 104.7 The Fish, one of our local Christian radio stations, until after June 20th because, contrary to its slogan, it was running ads that were not "safe for the whole family."
The ads?
Political ads.
Right now, Georgia's 6th Congressional district is holding a special runoff election. Their previous Congressional representative, Tom Price, was appointed Secretary of Health and Human Services. When he accepted the offer, he vacated the Congressional seat, thus requiring a special election.
Already, we in Atlanta have been inundated--make that, saturated--with political ads that rival the nastiness shown during the Presidential election. On April 18th, voters in the 6th Congressional District went to the polls to choose between 18 candidates of various political persuasions. None of them gained over 50% of the vote, so now, we have to go through a runoff election between the top two candidates. Jon Ossoff represents the Democrats; Karen Handel, the Republicans. The runoff election is June 20th.
I don't live in the 6th Congressional District, therefore, I don't have to worry about who I'm going to vote for. However, because I live in the Atlanta area, and because the 6th District is in Atlanta, I have to put up with the daily barrage of political ads accusing Jon Ossoff of being a liberal who will "rubber-stamp Nancy Pelosi's liberal agenda" and Karen Handel of being more than willing to spend taxpayer's money. As of the beginning of May, this election stands as the most expensive Congressional election in history.
The FB friend who complained about the ads on The Fish said that his three-year-old behaved better than the people who made the ads. I'd say that most three-year-olds behaved better than the ad makers!
I do listen to The Fish in the mornings, mainly because I enjoy their morning show. This morning, the following (paraphrased by me) statement caught my attention: "The following is a political ad that we are required by law to run. The views expressed by these ads are not necessarily those of the management of this station or its owner. Trust us, June 20th can't come soon enough!"
I did a little bit of research, and found out that the law does require stations to run all Federal political ads. I'm assuming that the current Congressional race falls under Federal politics. So The Fish doesn't have a choice. Even though the people making political ads are behaving at the level of three-year-olds (which is rather insulting to your average three-year-old), if it deals with Federal elections, it has to go on the air.
If you don't like the ads, your only two alternatives are to stop listening to The Fish, which is what my FB friend did; or ignore the ads by turning down the volume or removing your earbuds or headphones, which is what I did this morning.
We both agree with The Fish, and probably with the entire metro Atlanta area:
Travis Bickle, played by Robert DeNiro in Taxi Driver, asked that iconic question.
Well, I'm not talking to Travis Bickle, or Robert DeNiro, but I am talking to several other people.
Hey, you.
Yeah, you.
I'm talking to you:
Ted Cruz Mark Levin Sarah Palin Rush Limbaugh Sean Hannity Bill O'Reilly Ann Coulter Newt Gingrich Franklin Graham
And anyone else who calls themselves "conservative" but who's been willing to sell out their principles for the sake of not putting someone in the White House but for the sake of keeping someone out of the White House.
Yesterday, I was barbecued in the name of democracy.
Yesterday was the very first day of early voting in my county. There is only one place where people can go to vote (until more satellite stations open up in about a week or so), and it's at the Department of Elections in the county seat.
I am tired of this election, and a while back, I decided that I would go on the first day of early voting and get it over with.
Time of arrival: about 11 a.m.
Time of departure: about 3:45 p.m.
Yep. I spent FOUR AND A HALF HOURS in line waiting to vote. And as a result, I have a sunburn on my face.
During those four and a half hours, I stood outside in a line reminiscent of that you would find at Disney. Complete with movable portable separators.
I had no hat, no sunscreen, one bottle of water, and two electronic devices unable to be charged.
I did have a small notebook, so I took a few notes about what was going on around me.
I also had a nice chat with the women waiting with me.
The weather was unseasonably warm for this time of the year. Two people had to be treated by the EMTs for heat exhaustion. Several left the line to go sit down.
But despite the heat, people didn't get angry with each other. They grew impatient, but no riots or fights broke out.
Once we FINALLY got inside, I showed my ID, got my voting card, was shown to where the voting machines were, and pulled up my ballot.
First, I voted down ballot. There was a US Senate race and a US Representative race I voted for; four amendments, several local races, and a SPLOST initiative (special local sales tax.)
Then, I moved back up to the top of the ballot and touched "write-in", trying to figure out what the procedure was.
I was confronted with a QWERTY keyboard.
So I took my index finger, and very slowly, and very deliberately, I pecked out the letters S-N-O-O-P-Y.
Then I hit "cast ballot".
My duty was done.
Yes. I voted for Snoopy for president. THAT is how disgusted I am with the slate we are being offered this year. We had three candidates on the ballot, and I picked none of them.
Because, you see, for me it all came down to this:
I don't trust one candidate, I don't think one candidate is qualified, and I don't think one candidate knows what they are talking about. Therefore, my conscience won't let me vote for either of them.
Why, you may ask, did I cast a protest vote for Snoopy instead of just leaving it blank?
And why not vote for any of the above?
I cast a protest vote to make a statement.
And I didn't vote for any of the above because . . . ?
In this election, it was not that I wouldn't vote for any of them.
It was that I couldn't vote for any of them.
I hope it was worth getting barbecued for the sake of democracy.
After last week, I am convinced that the bullies have won.
Last week, the Presidential race was all but decided, and the GOP nominee is a man who relies on bluster and bluff to get his way.
The Democratic nominee is a woman whom the media have anointed to be the next President.
There are accepted positions to take on the hot-button issues of the day, and woe be unto you if you do not take those accepted positions. Last week, I posted that I felt like I had to "stand there and take it" as far as a particular issue is concerned, and the response I got was, "Yes, you do."
A state and the federal government are suing each other over transgender bathrooms, and the feds are likely going to win because they are on the "acceptable" side of the issue.
This morning, a Facebook friend posted the picture of her child's bruise. He was slugged at school after daring to speak against Clinton.
The event I keep flashing back to is when I was a senior in high school and dealing with bullies on the bus. They were two boys who just would not leave me alone. I finally got fed up one day and started screaming at them, and I punched one of them in the back. That was one of the only two times I ever hit a bully. I had been given the distinct impression that if I fought back, I would get into trouble and the bullies would not.
My parents took me off the bus and drove me to school for the rest of the year. One day, one of the bullies saw me getting out of my parents' car and yelled, "Hey, Tina, why don't you ride the bus anymore?"
The day of the bus incident, I told my parents that the bullies had won. I would do anything they said. My mother screamed back at me, "Don't you DARE say they've won!"
But the fact was, they had. They drove me off the bus, they beat me down emotionally, and I am still dealing with the issues. This was not the only occasion when I was bullied. It started in first grade and continued all through school.
The bullies are winning now. They have the power and the resources to get what they want and to silence those who disagree with them. You can be shamed and sued for disagreeing, and if you don't have deep pockets and a thick skin, you are sunk.
I didn't have the power and the resources to fight back against school bullies, and I don't have the power and the resources now to fight against current trends in society. My opinion does not matter.
Author and conservative pundit Erick Erickson's new book is, You Will Be Made To Care, and it tackles some of the hot-button issues that society is dealing with. What I would like to know is, what do you do when you are just too tired and too sad to care anymore?
I know we Christians win in the end, but right now, I may have to wait anywhere between 40 minutes and 40 years to see that happen. Right now, I feel as if I'm lying on the mat of a boxing ring, the referee has counted "Ten!" and I can't get up. I don't need to hear about my "ultimate victory". I need to be helped to the locker room and given treatment for my injuries. Maybe I need to go to the hospital and get my cuts stitched. Then I need to meet with my trainer, who will either a) tell me what I need to do to win the next fight, or b) tell me that it's time to hang up my gloves.
I also know there are people who believe differently than I do on these hot-button issues. Okay, that's your right under the First Amendment to believe as you do and express those beliefs. But I feel as if everyone else has those rights and are allowed to express them without fear of retaliation, but when I or people who believe as I do express our beliefs, we are automatically shut down and crushed--and the people doing the shutting down and crushing are the ones with the resources to do so.
Political commentator Erick Erickson's latest book is, "You Will Be Made To Care," which is about the rise of the militant left and how you will be "made to care" about their "agenda".
I get his point, but right now, I am having a very hard time caring or being made to care.
Governor Nathan Deal has a religious freedom bill on his desk. No matter whether he signs it or vetoes it, someone's going to be mad at him. And right now, I can't really care one way or the other whether he signs it or not.
The presidential race, at the moment, will probably come down to either a brokered Republican convention and/or Trump vs. Clinton, with Clinton a probable winner. I can't care about that, either.
It could be because I'm just weighted down with the cares and concerns of everyday life. But I just don't have the mental or emotional energy to go through the pros and cons of every.single.argument. that is out there about why I should support/oppose certain issues, why I should vote for/vote against a particular candidate, why I should contribute to a candidate's war chest, etc.
Maybe this is by design; that the media think that if they overload us with too much information, we won't care, we will become apathetic, and we'll end up voting for the candidate they want (which I believe is Hillary Clinton.) Or we'll end up not voting at all.
Sorry, Erick, but right now, I'm having a rough time caring.
Last week you endorsed Donald Trump for President, and the conservative community is up in arms. Some agree with you and they're glad you're on board. Others think you have betrayed your conservative principles.
This is a free country, and you certainly have the right to endorse whoever you wish.
But as a wife, mother, and fellow Christian, may I make a suggestion to you?
Go home.
Go home and be with your husband, who's done single parent duty plenty of times, and who I'm sure misses you and needs you.
Get Track the help he needs, especially if he truly is suffering from PTSD. At the very least, get him to a good counselor. If he's committing acts of domestic violence, he desperately needs help.
Show Bristol that being the single mother of two parents isn't all it's cracked up to be. While I know you love your grandchildren, and you love Bristol, she needs to understand that her actions are going to have consequences that will be passed down to those children.
Help Willow and Piper with the challenges they have being young women in today's world.
Most of all, be with little Trig as he faces the challenges he will have as a child with Down's Syndrome. I have a child with special needs also. We both love our special children dearly, and we know that they can be hard to handle at times.
Next week at this time, I'll be writing my first political blog post of the 2016 season.
I'll be honest: I'm worried about this election. I've been worried about the last two, and I'm worried about this one. Our country is in serious trouble. We have a major debt problem (heading towards $20 trillion). Even though we've been told that we're "in recovery", our economy is still shaky. One of the reasons the unemployment rate has been going down is not because more jobs are being created, but because people have given up looking.
We are a people deeply divided. No one wants to listen to the other side. The other side is automatically "the enemy".
I don't have a lot of optimism when it comes to the political future of this country. Everyone wants their own way and no one is willing to give an inch. Or, there is complete capitulation by one side to the other side.
I've seen several reports recently of shootings and disturbances at malls. And you can't get away from the reports of violence that daily dominate our newspapers. We're sitting on a powder keg, like Europe was in 1914, and it's only going to take one match to light the fuse.
I have a countdown clock on my blog to the days before Iowa and New Hampshire, and the days before this election. Frankly, I'll be glad when it's over. I'm going to need a virtual HAZMAT outfit because of all the mudslinging that will be going on!
I'm a Whovian. For the ignorant and/or uninitiated, 'Whovians" are fans of the BBC science fiction program "Doctor Who". The Doctor, as he is known, is a time lord who travels throughout time fighting enemies and helping people. There have been twelve doctors in the 52-year history of the program. The latest Doctor is played by Peter Capaldi.
The Doctor traditionally travels with at least one companion, and that companion is, more often than not, female. His most recent companion is Clara Oswald, played by Jenna Coleman. In the Doctor's latest adventure with Clara, his enemy is an alien race call the Zygons. As part of the plot, one of the Zygons has commandeered Clara's face and is looking for something called the Osgood box. In the climax, there are two Osgood boxes with two buttons: Truth or Consequences.
Push the wrong button, and serious consequences would ensue for either the Zygons or the humans.
The fake Clara and another character, Kate, are facing each other, ready to push the button.
And at that moment, the Doctor delivers one of the best speeches I have ever heard on war and revolution:
I found a transcript of the Doctor's speech that someone posted at Reddit.com, and I'm using it as part of this blog post:
The Doctor: Ah. And when this war is over, when -- when you have the homeland free from humans, what do you think it's going to be like? Do you know? Have you thought about it? Have you given it any consideration? Because you're very close to getting what you want. What's it going to be like? Paint me a picture. Are you going to live in houses? Do you want people to go to work? What'll be holidays? Oh! Will there be music? Do you think people will be allowed to play violins? Who will make the violins? Well? Oh, You don't actually know, do you? Because, just like every other tantruming child in history, Bonnie, you don't actually know what you want. So, let me ask you a question about this brave new world of yours. When you've killed all the bad guys, and it's all perfect and just and fair, when you have finally got it exactly the way you want it, what are you going to do with the people like you? The troublemakers. How are you going to protect your glorious revolution from the next one?
Bonnie (fake Clara): We'll win.
Doctor: Oh, will you? Well maybe -- maybe you will win. But nobody wins for long. The wheel just keepts turning. So, come on. Break the cycle.
* * * * * * * * *
The Doctor: Because it's not a game, Kate. This is a scale model of war. Every war ever fought right there in front of you. Because it's always the same. When you fire that first shot, no matter how right you feel, you have no idea who's going to die. You don't know who's children are going to scream and burn. How many hearts will be broken! How many lives shattered! How much blood will spill until everybody does what they're always going to have to do from the very beginning -- sit down and talk! Listen to me, listen. I just -- I just want you to think. Do you know what thinking is? It's just a fancy word for changing your mind.
Bonnie: I will not change my mind.
The Doctor: Then you will die stupid. Alternatively, you could step away from that box. You could walk right out of that door, and you could stand your revolution down.
* * * * *
The Doctor: I don't understand? Are you kidding? Me? Of course I understand. I mean, do you call this a war, this funny little thing? This is not a war. I fought in a bigger war than you will ever know. I did worse things than you could ever imagine, and when I close my eyes... I hear more screams than anyone could ever be able to count! And do you know what you do with all that pain? Shall I tell you where you put it? You hold it tight... Til it burns your hand. And you say this -- no one else will ever have to live like this. No one else will ever have to feel this pain. Not on my watch.
Here's what got my attention: What happens when "it's all perfect and just and fair, when you have finally got it exactly the way you want it"?
What happens with those who support Bernie Sanders, an avowed Socalist, when they have it "perfect and just and fair", the way they define "perfect and just and fair?"
Or what happens with those who support Hillary Clinton, and who support what she thinks is "perfect and just and fair"?
What about the conservatives in the Republican Party, and their definition of "perfect and just and fair"?
Each group can get their world "perfect and just and fair", but what do they do with the troublemakers? What do they do with those that don't agree? What do they do with the people that don't think that everything is "perfect and just and fair?"
Right now, according to the coundown on my blog, there are 364 days until Election Day in the United States. Although I say "each side", as if there were only two sides to this election, there are really multiple sides right now. I'll address this to all sides:
You have your definition of what is perfect and just and fair . . . but what are you going to do with those that don't agree with your definition of perfect and just and fair? Because right now, on all sides, there are people who don't agree, don't even like, other's definitions of perfect and just and fair.
Face it, there will be no definition of perfect and just and fair that is going to make everyone happy. Not with conservatives, who are unhappy with the current state of affairs in the Republican Party. Not with moderate Republicans, who think conservatives are too rigid. Not with Republicans vs. Democrats, who both see the world through their own particular lens and believe that if one or the other party is elected, the United States of America is headed for certain doom. Not with differing wings of the Democratic Party, with Bernie Sanders as a socialist and Hillary Clinton defending her record as a Senator and Secretary of State. We may think that war and revolution are going to solve everything. Each party, or group, may think that when they're in charge, the world is going to be perfect. Socialists believe that if everything can be divided equally, then the world will be just and fair and perfect. Conservatives believe that if everyone is given the opportunity with as little government interference as possible to better themselves, the world will be fair and just and perfect.
I happen to fall into the latter category. Socialism has not worked in the countries where it has been tried. I believe we all are intelligent enough to take advantage of opportunities and that we have the responsibility to help others along the way, without being coerced by a law that will force us to do so. True charity comes from the heart.
But on both sides, there are the "troublemakers". There are those who don't think that conservatism is fair, just, and perfect; just as there are those who don't think that socialism is fair, just and perfect. And that's because no system is fair, just, or perfect. Not even systems I believe in, such as conservatism, or democracy, or the US Constitution.
The Doctor spoke more about war than I have covered in this blog post. My question to consider is: Do we really think that the world is going to be perfect, just, and fair when we get everything exactly the way we want it?
Answer: No, it will not; because we will always have the dissenters and the troublemakers.
How, then, do we learn to work together?
That's a question that only we can answer when we, as the Doctor has said, learn how to think.
I'm a conservative, which means I believe that Americans are smart enough to run their own lives without all that much help from the goverment. Government is needed to protect the public safety and provide certain public services.
I disagree with those who "lean left" about the role of government in certain areas, like health insurance, Social Security, environmental protection, and others. But I also admit to some frustrations with both sides of the aisle.
There are people who need health insurance and who will either go bankrupt from trying to pay for health care or die without it. How do they get insurance if they're unemployed or can't afford to pay the premiums? That was one of the points of the Affordable Care Act, to get insurance into the hands of those that needed it. What I objected to was the way it was pushed through Congress. Also, I think trying to address so many health care issues in one bill was biting off more than one could chew. One thing I would have liked to have seen in the bill was the ability to buy health insurance across state lines, which may have made obtaining health insurance easier.
And there are people who are disabled and can't work, or who can only work in certain jobs. I know families who deal with seriously disabled members--people with cerebral palsy, or severe autism, or severe mental illness, or Lou Gehrig's disease . . . I could make an endless list. How do you get medical treatment for these people? And how do you support the caregivers of these families?
The IRS, TSA, and EPA are probably the most hated governmental agencies in America. There are legitimate concerns about all three of them--overreaching authority, audits that might not be necessary, patting down people that don't need to be patted down, and other concerns. But there are people who cheat on their taxes, or who innocently have made mistakes and need help. The environment does need to be cared for, because dirty air, dirty water, contaminated land--all of them are health hazards. (And as a Christian, I am called to be a good steward of what has been entrusted to my care.) And, as much as we might not like to think about it, there are terrorists out there who want to kill Americans, on American soil, and we do need to find them before they can do their job.
On the other hand, we have 18 trillion dollars in debt, and it's fast rising. Social Security, Medicaid, and other government programs eventually will run out of money. You can tax and tax all you want, but unless Congress gets out of the habit of spending more than they receive, none of the financial problems of the US will be solved.
Neither liberals nor conservatives seem willing to work with each other to solve the problems we're facing. Nor do they seem to be willing to crawl into the other side's skin to try and see things from the other point of view, lest they be accused of "compromising". Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill, while they disagreed with each other philosophically, had drinks together. At least they were willing to work together. When was the last time John Boehner and Barack Obama had drinks together?
I'm frustrated with both sides of the aisle, which is why I often think, "A plague on both your parties!" Both sides of the aisle make decisions about which I can do nothing, yet I have to live with many of the consequences of those decisions. As do the rest of us.
Is there just no way for both sides to work together without one side completely caving to the other, or one side being accused of "compromise" with the other side?
I didn't watch last night's debate. But I have heard news coverage and read social media, and while the news consensus seems to be that Clinton won, I've seen at least one poll where Sanders was declared the victor.
I heard about discussions regarding Obamacare, free college education, paid family leave, etc. etc. What I'm not finding, though, is a serious discussion of how it's all going to get paid for. This is what I see to be a major problem with certain proposals: where is the money going to come from to fund free community college, paid family leave, etc.?
You can "tax the rich" all you want, but you can only "tax the rich" so much; then you either have to stop funding for the programs you want, or redefine who is "rich" so that you get more money.
Sanders openly admits that he is a socialist. While socialism is about "equality for all" and looks good on paper, take a look at the countries where socialism has been tried.
Like Russia and Eastern Europe.
How'd that work for them?
(And before you mention Scandanavia, check this article.)
What people fail to understand is that there is no such thing as "free". I love having "freebies", I confess; and in the interest of full disclosure, my son did receive a so-called "freebie" through Medicaid. He, as well as many others, received Medicaid coverage through the Katie Beckett waiver, a special waiver allowing medically fragile children to qualify for Medicaid when the parents don't otherwise qualify. (Most parents use this as secondary, not primary, medical coverage.)
In writing about Medicaid, I feel the frustration: I know there are those who desperately need medical insurance. I know that there are those who will go bankrupt without medical insurance. (That was the main point of Obamacare--to get insurance into the hands that needed it. I just think that the Affordable Care Act was the wrong way to do it.) And there are others who will make valid arguments in favor of the very things Clinton, Sanders, and others want.
But I also know that someone has to pay for the freebies. And I don't think people are thinking about that part of the issue.
On Saturday, October 10th, I may go into hiding for the day.
Or out of town.
Donald Trump is coming to Atlanta, and he will be speaking at a location that, according to Google Maps, is seven minutes from where I live. The traffic in the area will be nightmarish.
Do I plan to go? No, I do not.
Why? Because I don't plan to vote for Trump. The more I see him in the news, and the more I hear about him, the more I am turned off by him. He may know "the art of the deal", and he may have business expertise, but that doesn't necessarily qualify you to run the United States of America. He seems to think that all he has to do is run his mouth and people will fall in line. That isn't going to work when you are facing down Vladimir Putin or the Ayatollah Khameni of Iran. He may make a good advisor to the Secretary of Commerce, but not President.
I feel the same way about Ben Carson. I admire the man, and he'd make a good Surgeon General, but I don't think his medical expertise necessarily makes him qualified to be President.
Right now, I'm not sure who I am going to back for President. I know who I won't back, but not yet who I will back.
For now, though, Donald Trump is not on my short list. And that's why, on Saturday, I will be nowhere near where he is speaking. Even if I have to go into hiding.
So, John Boehner is out as Speaker of the House, effective next month. There's a list of people who are glad to see him go.
I'm not a fan of him leading the constant "caving" of the Republican Party.
My question is, though, what is life going to be like A.B. -- After Boehner?
Will Kevin McCarthy be elected next speaker? Will he be the one to take a tough stand against Democrats? Will he be the the party leader that people want?
Or will we have another speaker that will end up caving?
Or will we end up having so much fighting that nothing will get done?
I appreciate the need to stand on principle, and there are times when people need to do just that. But unless our legislative branch learns to work together--and that may mean not getting every single thing you want--our Congress is going to swallow itself alive. I am reminded of a verse in the book of Galatians: if you keep biting and devouring each other, watch out or you may be destroyed by each other.
There has been so much biting and devouring going on in the United States Congress that all 435 members could be tried and convicted of political cannibalism.
I suspect that will be the spin on the coverage of yet another threatened government shutdown.
I'm not going to sit here and list the reasons why the government may or may not shut down, the threats of the leaders of either party, etc. etc. etc.
What I feel like is best expressed in the words of William Shakespeare in Act Three, Scene One of Romeo and Juliet, right after Mercutio is stabbed by Tybalt: "A plague on both your houses!"
I hold both parties responsible for this mess that has become a ritual every September. There are the threats to shut the government down, the back-and-forth dance between the parties and houses of Congress, the suspense that lasts up until just a few hours before the deadline, when party leaders walk out victoriously, arm-in-arm, to face the TV news cameras and announce the "bipartisan" deal that they have reached.
Then they go back to work for another year, only to repeat the same charade again next September.
My husband is a federal employee. In 2013, the government did shut down for 16 days in October. We were lucky. We had savings to tide us over, and when the government reopened, government employees that were furloughed did receive back pay.
We're tired of the games that Congress plays. It's games like this that make it possible for "non-politicians" to grab and hold the spotlight in this election cycle. People are angry, and they feel powerless.
