Daily Mood Quotes - December 11, 2011

Daily Mood Quote

Day 219 – December 11, 2011

“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Gee whizz, I really hate to wax political, its such an unseemly mess and there are way too many blogs dedicated to polarized sides of any political issue. But, I must tell you that I have been distantly following the Republican Presidential primary, with indifference and a healthy dose of skepticism. I know that historically these things are at very best a popularity contest, won by the candidate who is willing to bend the lowest and pander to the fears and greed of socially disconnected, special interest groups. For the past thirty years, the Republican party has progressively distanced itself from anything that remotely resembles the genuine will or needs of the people of the Unites States of America. Ostensively, the party's leaders have been focused almost exclusively on the narrow financial interest of a small group of self-serving, ideologists (I would say idiots, but...) that have bastardized the American ideal and transplanted it with a twisted, mono-partisan and greed driven perspective. I hasten to remind, that when Mr. Gingrich was Speaker of the House, the split between parties became a gaping chasm. His rhetoric is corrosive, destructive and completely ignorant. If you don't believe me, check this out. If it sounds a bit harsh I can't really apologize, because it isn't nearly as harsh as the viewpoints expressed by him.

The following recent statements are from the front running Republican Presidential Candidate Newt Gingrich.

"Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works so they literally have no habit of showing up on Monday. They have no habit of staying all day. They have no habit of 'I do this and you give me cash,' unless it's illegal."

“I think that we’ve had an invented Palestinian people who are in fact Arabs, and who were historically part of the Arab community,” said Gingrich. “And they had a chance to go many places, and for a variety of political reasons we have sustained this war against Israel now since the 1940s, and it’s tragic.”

Ummm. “Stupid is as stupid does” as Forrest Gump (played by Tom Hanks in the movie Forrest Gump) would so eloquently profess. It really needs no further explanation, or comment. However, I say what's on my mind (it is a daily mood quote), so here it goes. First of all, no child rich or poor, aspires to poverty, for that matter I suspect neither do their parents. He has blithely disrespected and turned a blind eye to millions, not thousands, but millions (if not billions globally), of working poor; the honest, hardworking people who have not had the advantages, that I might add, where given to him to start their lives. Need examples? What about the children of working single moms who have two, or sometimes three jobs and yet still struggle to make ends meet? What about the children of split shift working fathers who may work sixty hours a week and are not paid a fair and equitable wage for their efforts because of the inequities of the system? What about those, through no fault of their own, are unemployed and can't find work? Does he know how fast savings evaporate, when you are unemployed and trying to keep a roof over your head, while trying to feed those “poor” children? Poor can come at you fast and hard, without mercy. But, I guess he wouldn't know that having almost his entire life paid for, from his teen years on. And, I might add, for the most part, paid for by the tax money wrenched away from the “poor” people he just spit on.

Dalai Lama said, “Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace” well, these two statements demonstrate true slavery to ignorance. Is this really the best America has to offer for Presidential candidates? Are you freakin' kidding me (thanks Mike C.)? What kind of peace can an idiot like this make? What I find so surprising is that Mr. Gingrich has a PhD and taught History and Geography at West Georgia College in the 1970's. Apparently, he learned nothing but how to twist the arms of political contributors and manipulate the easily swayed. I think a quote from Maya Angelou would be appropriate here, “My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors." I think that says it best.

To end my little rant: In my opinion, Newt Gingrich is a political prostitute, pandering for money to advance his campaign's “war fund.” He'll say or do anything, without thought to the consequences, to achieve his goals. Do you honestly think the rest of the world's memory is as failing as our attention deprived voters? Can you image what would happen, if he spoke like that at the United Nations? He does not represent the nation. Nor should he ever... Mr. Gingrich, shame on you and your ignorance.

Will you think before you speak today?

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Daily Mood Quotes - November 21, 2011

Daily Mood Quote

Day 201 – November 21, 2011

Americans never quit

~Douglas MacArthur

Unless your a politician, then quitting, at least to go on “break” is easy, because it doesn't affect them. Okay, (deep breath) as I stated earlier I don't often like to wax political. In fact I really try not to enter this area, as I really have a distaste for the whole thing. But, what is happening is just completely ridiculous. Here's what I mean; Today I heard on the news that the “Congressional Super Committee” is quitting and going home for the holidays. They claim it is too hard to reach a compromise. Are you freakin' kidding me? Must be nice to have the luxury of bailing (quitting) on the most important task you have ever been given and still having a job to come back to after a paid, extended, holiday vacation. In my personal opinion they can just stay home; they don't need to come back, because they can't or won't (which is more probable) do their job. Just exactly, why can't we fire these guys?

It's funny, most Republicans rail against organized labor, yet when you really look at it, they seem to be the members of the most corrupt labor union ever invented, the United States Congress. They can get away with doing nothing forever and still have jobs. What's up with that? Most of us would get fired on the spot for far less egregious failures, And lets not fool ourselves, that's exactly what they are. How else can you explain having a job for 12, 16. 24 or more years and accomplishing nothing that you were hired to do? How do these people keep their jobs?

Democrats are not blameless either, they have taken their being hired (elected) as a license to clean out America’s bank account and spend without thought of consequence. Truthfully, the way the Democrats acted when they got the house majority was nothing short of hijacking the system, a coup de tat, to follow a political agenda that was out of step with mainstream America. Annnnd, since that is all we have, that's all we get; two parties, black or white, up or down, “my way or the highway.” The real world just doesn't work like that, so why does our government? The American public also gets held accountable here; we hired these yo-yos (but that's another story). They go back and forth, and accomplish nothing...yo-yos. Yet, at the end of the day, they get to collect their government paychecks, go home to a Thanksgiving dinner and leave the rest of the nation, those who were counting on them, out in the cold. In some cases literally... It just upsets me at how these people, congressman/woman seem to have no conscience, they talk a good game, but in the end they really don't care.

With that said, here's something to think about. I am in favor of “term limits for the House of Representatives.” We have one for the President, so the precedent has been set. The founders meant our government to be citizen centric and citizen run. I cannot fathom that they would have imagined people would make entire careers in one political office. I promise you, Thomas Jefferson would have thought longer and harder about the wording of our Constitution, if he would have even an inkling that some congressional offices would have taken on the demeanor and color of a miniature monarchy. The framers of our Constitution vehemently abhorred such a concept. Yet, here we stand 240 years later with exactly that going on. I said our Constitution for a reason. It is our Constitution we, not the political pontiffs own it. Just like a house, when its yours, you are responsible for its continuing maintenance and upkeep. We as a nation have left its care in greedy and self-serving hands. This partisan bickering is a direct reflection of our congress's focus on the next election cycle, and not the needs of the nation, or its people. If they can't pitch it, they won't do it; whether it's right or not. If they can't point a finger at someone and say, “they're bad” (as per Newt Gingrich) they clam up and ride their name recognition into office, again and again and again; focusing on nothing but getting elected again. It's just ludicrous, that we have allowed ourselves to get into this situation. I do believe most of it is because we have only two viable parties, there is no tie breaker. Nobody to build coalitions with and find the common sense, middle ground. That's a part of the “great experiment” we to this point have allowed to go so wrong.

Let's be serious here, our political system is in many ways spinning out of control and we are the pilots. So when the next election is upon us, please think before you vote. Ask yourself, how long has this person been in office? Are they effective anymore? If not and they're just riding on the coat tails of our seemingly unaware society, FIRE THEM IMMEDIATELY. Better to, as Monty Brewster (played by Richard Pryor) said in Brewster's Millions, “Vote none of the above.” than to let the “mini-monarchs” to continue. The way it is now is freakin' feudal, but not futile. I'm not naïve here and know there are other factions that benefit from this foolishness and lots of money to be made by a few who can “put their boy/girl in place.” It's up to the citizenry to make the decision to vote responsibly. Please remember I'm not saying these things to get anyone upset, or to point fingers, there is enough of that going on. I'm just telling it the way it is, as I see it. I love our nation and our democracy. It's just time for some “fall cleaning” to clear the cobwebs out. Too many ancient fingers in the pie and they're taking it away from the very people who hired them. Told you I was upset!

How will you view “representative government” today”

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Daily Mood Quote - September 15, 2011

 

Daily Mood Quote

Day 135 – September 15, 2011

“When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened up for us”

~Helen Keller

In my life I have found that getting settled in one's way can be like quicksand. When opportunity presents itself you can't seize it, because your feet are stuck in the “same old way” of doing things. Habits can work for you, or against you. There is a saying, I'm paraphrasing again, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

I usually avoid waxing political in this blog, but: last night on The CBS Evening News, Scott Pelley interviewed the CEO of Starbucks Coffee, Howard Schultz and I have got to tell you, I liked what he had to say about how our political system is “broken” (his words). Unfortunately for us, he's right and until we stop doing things in Washington the “same old way” (Congress), things are never going to get better. What I thought was interesting in the interview was companies/corporations are sitting on trillions of dollars and yet jobs are not being created, and we have the highest number of people living in poverty ever. Even higher than the great depression. Sad, just simply sad!!! Mr. Shultz went on to explain that savvy companies (the ones with the cash) no longer have enough faith in our political system to invest that money on R&D, expansion and job creation. Its not the American people, tax codes, or even the global economy, preventing corporate job creation and making them sit on their cash. Its our representatives failing to work together. A simple thing that is expected in every business, everywhere. Yet Congress and the Senate can't get past their focus on the next election cycle. That focus seems to be unilaterally “make them (pick a party) look bad.” Instead of, “do better, so we look good.” It's been that way since the Newt Gingrich era (or at least it seems, some say it was the start of extreme negative partisan politics).

My husband told me a story this morning about something called “the monkey trap.” I had never heard this before, so I looked it up at www.urbandictionary.com (it's not in Webster’s) it says, “A trap to capture various monkeys used around the world which consists of a staked container with a hole cut into it just wide enough for a monkey to stick it's empty hand into. The container is baited with something attractive to the monkey. Monkey reaches for bait and then will not release the bait and cannot pull it's hand out of the trap with bait in hand. It is then captured.” Sounds an awful lot like American politics to me. The people who are supposed to be representing us, appear to be so fixated on holding onto their campaign funding, that they cannot see the opportunity to positively transform the broken system that lies right before them. It feels like we are all caught in the same trap with them.

I guess what I'm trying to say here without bashing our politicians too much is that Mr. Schultz was right when he said, “The lifeblood of the reelections of every one of our Congressional leaders in Washington is about fundraising. And I want to cut that off until we see civility, until we have a long-term debt ceiling deal that we are proud of, and restored confidence in America. And I just feel very strongly that this is a time when we no longer should accept the status quo mediocrity that we're getting.”

To be perfectly blunt, most people in America and around the world would be summarily fired if they handled their job the way Congress is handling theirs. Something to think about. Thank you Mr. Schultz for being honest, about our political system, Washington and our leaders.

Like Michael Douglas said as President Andrew Shepherd in the movie The American President, “We've got serious problems, and we need serious people...” This is now the time for serious people and maybe their fifteen minutes are up...

Just a thought, Helen Keller was blind and deaf and yet she saw and heard “opportunity” more clearly than all of Washington.

Which “door of opportunity” will you open today?

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