Second Thoughts

I thought long and hard while my finger was hovering over the 'publish' button on that last post. I tried very hard to keep politics out of my blog in the past. Don't we get enough of that shit from more conventional means? I've started half a dozen posts over the last month and erased them because, damn, there are puh-lenty political blogs out there. I get plenty of it at work, mostly from our resident Ditto-Head. Today's rant from DH just made me that much more resolved to stop deleting those posts. Today's piece of mis-information?

DH: "Did you hear about Obama's latest maneuver? He's going to shut down the Internet and all phone calls in case of emergency!

ME: "And where did you get this information today, DH?"

DH: "It was just reported by The Drudge Report!" (And, yes, he does use Exclamation points when talking about his despised President)

ME: "Ah, yes, and Drudge is so non-judgemental and trustworthy. Like when he reported about the 'Death Boards' and the so-called forged birth certificate."

DH: "Well, it was also covered by the Washington Post."

ME: "Which is a 'newspaper' in name only. Let's call it what it is. The Right Wing Rag."

***crickets***

On a daily basis, whether it's listening to the local talk-radio, talking to customers, hearing this bull at work, or reading the comment section of the local rag, everyone is in lock-step (parallel intended) with the daily talking-point memos that the rightwingers are instructed to rant about.

I just wish these people would get their information from somewhere besides Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Matt Drudge, or Fox News. There might be more conversation and less accusation. Because right now, reason is out of the question. A commenter today on Pensacola News Journal's letters to the editor called Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham "astute conservatives". The only thing 'astute' about Ann Coulter is when she has too much fiber in her diet ;/

P.S. I promise to get off this soapbox real soon. I have a real need to talk about substantial stuff. Like dip-stick restaurant managers. For instance, today's run-in with an ex-boss. That will be worth showing up for.

Are You Shi**ing Me?

I've talked before about listening to AM talk radio on the way to work in the morning. Every morning at 7:30, I flip over to see what Mike Huckabee is obsessing over that day. Today was a lighter than usual entry.

This morning, he had an uplifting message about what to tell those impressionable young minds graduating from high school or college. His suggestion was to give these maturing youngsters a gift. That gift?

A SENSE OF OPTIMISM!

Are you f'ing kidding me? A High Commander in the Army of Doom and Gloom? Someone who has nothing good to say about the current administration or its policies? A man who's collaborators have instilled a sense of morose over a nation and given a pass to the past administration. Seven months of intense action to fend off Great Depression II has only brought about incredulty and sour grapes over losing the election.

This is the same party who took credit for a vibrant economy 6 years after Reagan's Voodoo Economics and Trickle Down Theory were debunked. And now, seven months into Obama's administration, Barack is solely responsible. Amazing.

And Mike Huckabee says that a sense of optimism should be spread throughout the land. Gee, Mike, how will you straddle that fence while playing both sides of it? Will you start calling out those silly "birthers"? Will you admit things look better today than they did a year ago? We may not see the light at the end of the tunnel, but we know the tunnel does not lead to a blown-out bridge like we thought last year.

No thanks to all you "optimists" on the far right. Just make me one promise. This will not be your Vice Presidential nominee...

The 2-Year Itch

A large part of my life has been spent in temporary residences, transitional jobs, and places I knew that I'd never settle in. From birth to my teens, my parents, together or separately, uprooted me almost on a yearly basis. Then, in my twenties as an Air Force enlistee, Uncle Sam's ironic sense of humor gave me a job that sent me all over Europe on TDY's (Temporary Duty Assignments) for the 3+ years I was stationed in Germany.

After my discharge (Honorable, thank you very much), I settled in Michigan and decided to put down roots for good. I was tired of the moving, especially the packing, tossing, and carting of detritus I had accumulated in my lifetime. In sixteen years in Michigan, I lived in two different apartments. The first apartment was one that I disliked immensely but stayed in for 10 years because of my dislike (Nay, Hatred!) of moving. I only left that one because it was bought by new owners who decided to upgrade it out of my price range. The second was an apartment that I adored because it had everything the first one did not and I stayed there for 6 years. I only left that place to foolishly improve my chances for advancement with the company I was working for at the time which I will not mention **cough, cough** Macaroni Grill.

Well, I escaped that roller-coaster existence after 5 years and 5 moves for those ungrateful scallywags (I'm trying very, very hard not to use profanity). I moved here to the panhandle of Florida and stuck my toe in the waters of permanency once again. While I revel in the thought of never moving again, certain facts point me towards pulling up stakes once again:

• Although I really, really like my job and am good at it, I've come to the conclusion that I don't like the people I work for all that much.
• My apartment complex has gone through three changes of management in two years. Each successive company has gone cheaper than the last. This summer, our pool has been closed about 1/3 of the time for various excuses.
• This area has the greatest concentration of conservative, Bible-thumping, homo-phobic, racist pigs I've ever experienced in 49 years of life. All you have to do is read the comment section in the local rag to become jaw-droppingly amazed at the attitudes of these gun-toting Fourth Reichers.
• My dad is healthier now than he was 10 years ago and will probably outlive me, so I could safely move farther away without feeling guilty.
• There are no jobs here, so I feel stuck in a place where I have no future beyond being a worker bee forever. While I don't necessarily want to be a manager-type again, I can't stand working for people who are in the position they are only because of a few genes. And take advantage of that fact.

I don't necessarily want to move far, but a change of scenery might do me good. Maybe I just need to take a long, soul-searching vacation where I don't do anything but request an extra lime for my margarita. Maybe I should ask for that long overdue raise that would let me know just what my future is here.

But, as I look around this spare bedroom where my computer and boxed stuff is located, all that I can think of is 'Oh, God, I do not want to pack and move this shit again!'. The big question, though, is where in Hell would I move to? My favorite relative, my aunt-sister, lives in New Hampshire, and I will never move "up-North" again. Although the politics in New England are closer to my sensibilities, I refuse to ever scrape ice and snow from my vehicle again. My second favorite aunt lives in a great area of Florida and is close to my age, but she's a rabid Rush Limbaugh devotee. Wouldn't work out.

Maybe Mobile. Maybe New Orleans. Maybe Biloxi, where I had plans to move before that bitch Katrina interfered. I guess I just need to find an employer who wants me bad enough to do all the damn packing for me. Yeah, right, that'll happen.