Giving up... ?

I made some sort of comment on a political thing that I read and was told by a lady I used to work with that I was filled with hate.  That burns.  I like to think I'm rather loving and gentle and accepting of humans in general.  I thought my response deserved a bit more attention than just those who bother to read comments on Facebook.  Here was my response:

I don’t hate Republicans. I align myself with Liberals because I believe everyone deserves healthcare, no child should ever be hungry, regardless of the source of the hunger, all children deserve a competitive, free education and there’s nothing wrong with homosexuality.  I also think the abortion argument is flawed for exactly ONE reason. If the government doesn't want women to have abortions, they why isn't birth control free?  I’ll be pro-life when I see all forms of birth control cheap and easy to access.  I see little logic in their arguments, mostly because it’s either based on a book written 2000 years ago or the predatory language of the Koch brothers.  Moderates have lost their voices and either been swallowed into the Tea Party fray, removed from office for the likes of Ted Cruz or become unheard independents.

I hate what the Republican Party has become.  It pains me to see a relatively small minority have such a loud voice and powerful position in our legislative body.

Everyone I know is angry and scared about this.  We don't all agree on the politics but we all know the consequences of a government shut down. I read on Bill Moyer's website an article where if we want to win we have to sacrifice everything.  It's a good article, TLDR: They win, we lose.

I fear at some point we, the liberals, will be seated with our heads in our hands, just having acquiesced because we can no longer match their zealous insanity with logic.  You can't tell someone who won't listen why their logic has no basis in reality.  It's simply easier to wave it off, say "fuck it" and move to Colorado where it's legal to smoke pot and have your give-a-shit dismantled.  At least in Colorado they were smart enough to legalize pot, where they can regulate and tax it and build public infrastructure and educate kids... 

oh wait... just fuck it, remember?

I'm just tired of being angry all the time. I acknowledge moving to Colorado and becoming a pothead isn't the answer. As a state employee though, this stuff really does matter and we are left here to watch this grinding train wreck of a legislative body terrorize us with their insanity.  

I suppose I should acknowledge the things I cannot change.  It's that whole wisdom to know the difference that I'm lacking.  

Not again... More table manners

I went to Threadgill's with my Mom last night.  We hadn't been there in a few weeks and I do generally like their food.  Actually she wanted to go to dinner at Brio or PF Changs or NXNW and I wasn't in the mood for the crowd, the wait or the pretense.  At Threadgill's I didn't have to do anything to look nicer.

We were seated in a section away from the main dining room that has the makings for a nicer intimate setting.  We sat down and immediately three men behind us finished eating and started talking.  They were older men.  None of them could hear the others so they were shouting at each other.  I could hear their entire conversation and had to speak over them to place my order.

Now I perceive this as an irritation.  They couldn't help they had hearing issues.  My only complaint was their series of comments about waitresses in general.  They also were bashing the University of Texas football team.  I could give a shit, but that's dangerous territory in Austin where they are the home team and everyone loves them and everything they represent.

These guys would be classified as a rowdy distraction and there's nothing anyone, especially them, can do about it.

My dad was like that.  He was loud, mean and vulgar at every opportunity unless the waitress was really pretty and then he'd hit on her.  Yes... my 80 year old father, shriveled by age and disability would hit on any woman who might have even a little pretty in her.  That was always fun.  That's a table manner... Don't hit on the waitress.

The biggest issue was after the men left a woman behind me had a very personal conversation with a friend who was putting his mother into hospice care.  She might as well have come to our table sat down and vomited on the table.  That's how appropriate her conversation was in that setting.

So to her I say, Take that shit outside.

Inspiration To Us All

IDIOT!

Who the fuck voted for Ted Cruz?  You should be ashamed of yourself.  My dumbass, shit-eating dog wouldn't be able to fuck up this country as well as this guy does.

He is a FRESHMAN senator from Texas.  Okay that on its own says a lot.  Perhaps he is high on the fumes from the chemical plants in Houston.  I don't know what his problem is but he filibustered a bill he supports!

He does his own thing with his Tea Party agenda.  He refuses to compromise his principles. He doesn't listen to anyone. We're stuck with him for another 5 years.  If no one is paying attention to what an idiot he is we will be stuck with him as the incumbent for decades.  In less than a year he is headlining on all the major news networks as a political power-house.  

Texas, haven't you had enough of the morons?  We have Governor Perry and now we have this wing-nut.  

I read an article by Bill Moyers where he quoted John McCain as calling him a "wacko-bird."  John McCain knows crazy because he is crazy.  If John McCain says you're crazy then you're bull-moose nuts. What did we do to deserve him?

Is anyone paying attention?  If we submit to the Tea Party and their ideals we will all fail as a country.  Their ideals are based on ignorance and fear.  They are justifiably afraid but they are so misinformed they don't know they are being manipulated by the people they should be afraid of.  

The Newsroom

This is my new guilty pleasure.  The term "guilty pleasure" implies that it's stupid but it isn't.  It's brilliant.

It was created and written my Aaron Sorkin who is one of my favorite screen writers.  He is also the brains behind The West Wing, my very favorite all time show in the history of television. I think my next bender will be watching all the seasons again.  This time I will take notes.

I love the way he writes like an articulate intellectual.  His characters always say what I want to say when I'm tongue tied in a political argument.  My best friend says I become very articulate when I'm angry.  And it's true.  When I'm angry and venting about something I turn into a fierce champion for what's right.  When I am confronted with a person I fail to remember all my vocabulary and resort to emotional grunts and moans.

One of my good friends is a Republican.  He is a "Taxed Enough Already" Republican.  He doesn't really care about the Christian right issues but he doesn't want to pay for children he doesn't have to go to school.  He doesn't want to participate in TANF or Snap.  He is fine seeing starving men, women and children suffering from a whole host of diseases on the street.  He chooses not to walk down those streets so it doesn't matter anyway.  He is a social Darwinist. 

He ripped into me and my mother one night with his Fox News dogma.  We very quietly sat through his rant and we did not talk for two months.  His argument was based on financial greed.  He still believes in the trickle down theory of economics and I doubt Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman could convince him to think otherwise.

The Newsroom grabs the Tea Party by the horns and wrestles with it the way the media should.  

In January 2009 John Stewart had a monologue where he told the conservatives who were angry about President Obama's successful bid for the presidency that they had 20 months until the mid term election and they needed to pace their rage.  They did and voted, in my opinion, the most worthless group of legislators I've seen in my lifetime.  A few weeks ago, Terry Gross interviewed Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times on her show Fresh Air, that airs nightly on NPR. It was about how little this congress has done.  ( I have included a link to the show.)

In short they have done almost nothing.  They throw tantrums and try to repeal Obama-care.  They throw more tantrums and deny SNAP benefits to hungry children.  They throw tantrums and revoke funding for education.  They do what they can to shut down the unions.  They do what they can to make abortion illegal yet they also want abstinence-only education in school. And then there are the wars.

I saw a Bill Moyers quote on Facebook that all the money we've spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could fund higher education for all high school graduates for at least the next 50 years.  Maybe that's a bit of a dream that would never come true, but it could feed a lot of hungry kids and supply a lot of after school programs. 

The Newsroom doesn't go into that much detail.  I've spent most of this entry spouting off about my own beliefs.  What it has done has gotten me and a lot of other liberals I know fired up against the Tea Party.  It has reminded us that we are appalled by what they represent.  It has helped us to articulate our arguments against them the next time we have one.

If you are a liberal like I am, get your hands on a copy of it, watch it and take notes.  It'll be worth your time.

Unmarked

I have always wanted to get a tattoo.  But I hesitated because I have sensitive skin.  I found out that some tattoos have metal in them and I'm allergic to a lot of metals.

Examples include:

• When I was 22 I had 3 silver fillings fall out within 5 days. 
• I was unable to wear my class ring because it caused a rash
• If I wear cheap metal jewelry it will turn my skin red in a matter of minutes.
• I tried to have my ears pierced twice and both times it failed to heal so I had what amounted to an open wound for several months each time before giving up.

Currently I have 4 noble-metal crowns and I have replaced all of my fillings with porcelain.  Part of my dental issues are that I have crappy teeth, but the other part is my silver fillings reacted badly with my chemistry and caused further tooth issues.  The teeth can be discussed further in a later post.  I can tell you horror stories that will leave you flossing after every meal.

So, no tattoo for Melissa.

As I got older I researched hypo-allergenic inks and options for designs.  I decided since I am a firm believer in science I would get the equation for the Higgs-Boson particle. It is also referred to as the "God particle" because it supposedly has the potential to be the primary component that created the universe.  I took physics in high school and watched a few documentaries on PBS and am therefore not an expert.

I would get something like this:

Or this:

But considering my knowledge is limited I fear that I have no idea what either means.  I just think it looks cool.  That's what most tattoos represent, right?  "It looked cool so I permanently affixed it to my skin."

I also like this:

In case you aren't a geek it's the T.A.R.D.I.S or what Doctor Who and his companions travel through space and time with. 

When I met Charles I told him what a geek I was and presented him with the image of an equation I wanted to get tattooed on my back.  He casually said that he wasn't into tattoos and I admitted that I didn't have any and that was the end of the discussion.

Then I saw this:

It's a white line tattoo and it makes me happy. There is no metal in white ink. To me it looks lovely and classy and beautiful.  When I brought it to Charles' attention he said, "I'm really not into tattoos.  They will take away your girl-next-door cred and I have issues with that."  We have had long discussions and he has pointed out beautiful girls with "She doesn't have any girl-next-door cred..."  And that's what attracts him to me.

So... no tattoos.  Hmph... 

Today I was in Whole Foods.  Everywhere I looked there were men and women with tattoos.  It is an accepted practice in today's society to get them.  Then I saw a guy with a tattoo on his face.  Really?... on your face?  The only place you can get a job with that is Whole Foods.  

So I realized that I was likely the only person in there over the age of 30 that didn't have a tattoo in the store.  You know what?  That makes me a rebel.  And that's a perfect excuse not to get one.  I'm satisfied.

Rule Number 5

So this story gets a little raunchy at the end.  If you're bothered by that, stop here and enjoy the rest of your day.  If not, carry on, friend, carry on.

So last night I go to visit my friend Amy who is now the proud human to my former cat Buddha.  We all used to live together.  When my ex husband, who got Buddha in the divorce, fizzed out, I called Amy.  She did me a solid and took him in.

I like to visit them because Amy is my friend and I have known and loved Bu since he was a kitten.  He was my cat and I was his biscuit.  He has spent many hours on my lap making biscuits.  My ex finally broke him of the habit until the last time I went to visit Amy and he sat right in my lap and went to kneading my belly.

I understood the parking policy in her apartments to be that I could park in any uncovered spot.  I did not see the big sign that said if I did not live there I was at risk of being towed.  Last night I walked to my car and it was missing.  I panicked thinking it had been stolen and then Amy said, "Oh, they tow here."  What a relief... Someone legally stole my car.  I can at least bribe them to give it back to me.  The bribe cost me $193.10.

I got there and it was of course a neckbeard.  He was about 5'2" and 600 pounds.   He made us wait 20 minutes while he finished his World of Warcraft game and finally said, "It'll be $193.10."  How specific... I grumbled and not a single fuck was given.  I was subjected to his whims if I wanted my car back.

Later after all of this was over I called Charles.  I was in a shitty mood.  I speculated, "He may have had someone sucking his dick back there in order to get her car back."

Of course Charles said, "It wasn't you was it?"

I indignantly said, "NO! I promised you I wouldn't suck anyone's dick. If he said that was the only way I could get it I would've called you."

Then he said, "Oh, so I'd have to suck his dick to get your car?  I'm sorry Babe, but I don't love you that much."

At that we both laughed... I laughed so hard I was in tears by the end.  We agreed never to suck anyone's dick even if it is on the other's behalf.