Words of Truth

>I am getting pretty sick of all the cutesy ways that people try to insult those with whom they disagree. You don’t agree with my political views, so I’m now a “ReTHUGlican” or a “RATpublican” or something. Others are “Democraps” or “Libtards.” What’s worse is when people start doing it to people’s names. Rush Limbaugh used to make fun of Jesse Jackson just by pronouncing his name like Jesse talks…that’s ok in my book, but he never called him some other name that would insult the man. One I heard a lot over the last eight years by people demonizing George Bush is “Bushitler.” “Commander in Thief.” Yes. Very amusing. You sir, are a veritable wordsmith of wit.

The other day I was listening to the radio, and I found a program I had never heard before: The Monica Crowley Show. She’s a conservative talk radio commentator type person, and she was going on about what President Obama was doing wrong. Except she wasn’t calling him “Mr. President,” “Obama”, “Barack,” or even “Barry” (which I’ve been told is a nickname of his). She kept referring to him as “The Bama” I don’t know why she was doing this, but after listening to her use this phrase repeatedly for over 2 minutes, I had to turn the radio station. I sent her an e-mail telling her this, but I haven’t gotten a response.

Why do people feel that they must jab at our brains with these little “pseudo-witticisms” so we’ll pay attention? Would I have kept listening to that radio show if she hadn’t insisted on using her little pet name for the President? Probably. Will I listen again? Not as long as there’s some good accordion music as an alternative (and just ask me how willing I am to listen to THAT!).

Here’s what I think: when I’m talking to someone about politics (or whatever), and they insert one of these inanities, I instantly assume they don’t want to discuss it any further, and their only goal is now to be insulting. So I stop talking to them. I may disagree with Barney Frank with every fiber of my being, but the man has enough problems without me mispronouncing his name. Grow up, people.

>Yeah, right. Here is an AP article about two judges in Pennsyvlania who are accused of doing nasty things to kids, in a judicial sense. Note the last three words in paragraph 3: “Both are Democrats.”

Now read this. Notice the third paragraph? What three words are missing?

I have noticed an interesting trend in our “unbiased” news media: whenever a Republican is in trouble, the R is everywhere, but not so with the Democrats. Let me give you an example: let’s say the following generic paragraph was about a Democrat caught in a scandal:

“The Senator was found in the hotel room with the woman who is not his wife. He
was arrested by local police and released on his own recognizance. “

Now let’s say it was a Republican. What we see is this:

“The Republican Senator was found in the hotel room frequented by Republicans with the woman who is not his wife, who is also a Republican. This Republican was arrested by local police and released on his own recognizance, to confer with his Republican colleagues.”

So maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit, but look back over the news coverage of Governor Blago, and see how many stories referred to him as a Democrat. Not many. How about Kwame Kilpatrick? What I am saying is that a lot of politicians are corrupt, on BOTH sides of the aisle. It is unfair for the media to try and paint one party as worse than the other.

Anybody who says the media is not biased, is deluding themselves. Oh, and Santa isn’t real either, Virginia.

Fuller treatment of this story can be found here: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tom-blumer/2009/02/14/aps-name-party-twist-disgraced-judges-dem-party-id-disappears-after-init

EDIT: I just did a Google search for “mark ciavarella” AND prison, and I got 7820 hits. Add the term “democrat” to the search parameters, and you only get 1310 hits. That means only 17% of the websites that mention this guy going to prison ALSO mention he’s a Dem.

Let’s contrast that with a search for “Larry Craig” AND resigned. That gives you 110,000 hits. And now let’s add “republican” to the search: 82,600. That means 75% of the websites that mentioned the Craig scandal ALSO mentioned that he’s a Republican. 17 vs 75. Interesting.

>Tonight I watched a video that my sister put on her Facebook profile. It was a video of my nephew wrestling. Thankfully he won the match. Halfway through the match, I wondered if he was going to win, and I thought, “Please don’t say she uploaded a video of him losing. She wouldn’t do that, would she? Thankfully, no.

This got me thinking that I should upload a few video clips. I found one and spent some time figuring out how to configure it for editing and uploading. I got it done. After doing that, I started scanning through some of the other discs.

I’ve just spent about an hour watching videos from the past three or so years, and I have realized something: I am an angry person when it comes to my kids. I don’t know why, but for some reason I am kind and polite to perfect strangers, but with my own kids I have absolutely no patience for their childishness.

I did not make any new years resolutions this year, but I have decided that I need to make the following changes:

1. I need to spend more time interacting with my kids than I do with strangers. You think you know your kids, but they have an entire existence away from me (at school and other places) that I know nothing about. I get the scary feeling that if I don’t take an interest when they are young, they won’t include me when they get older. I heard a song a while back that affected me, and got me thinking about this one. It’s called “She’ll Go On You” and it’s sung by Josh Turner. The first verse goes like this:

If you’ve got a little girl, you’d better take the time
To go to her tea parties and give her a piggyback ride
Be a dragon or a dinosaur every chance you get
Cause one day you can bet

She’ll go on you
Before you can turn around
And it’s so lonely watchin’ that fast train leavin’ town
Better cherish her every second of your life
Cause this precious little thing that we call time
She’ll go on you

2. I need to be more patient with my kids and not lose my temper. When people ask my kids to describe me in the future, I don’t want them to say, “He was an angry man,” or, “he was mad a lot of the time.” I want them to talk about how they just knew that I loved them by the things that I did, and the way I helped them with their problems.

3. I need to get involved in my kids’ lives. I read something tonight about how women really know their kids, and men know that there are short people living in the house. It is meant as a joke, but there’s some truth there, that shouldn’t be true. I think the most important thing I can do for my kids is to just be there for them. I am naturally a selfish person (most of us are), and I enjoy my “me time,” but I will have plenty of “me time” after the kids move out. This needs to change now. My oldest is almost 12 years old. I want to go back to when he was two, and just enjoy being around him more. You can’t go back, but you can change how much time you invest right now. I’m not wasting any more of their time.

4. A list of resolutions wouldn’t be complete with that American stand-by: I need to lose weight. If a camera adds a few pounds, the video camera shows you in 3D. Am I really this big? I guess I am. A guy online the other day made a comment (he was trying to attack me) about how gluttony is a sin. He’s right.

One last thing: my dog REALLY needs a bath. When it’s warm (March through October), I just leash him to a post on my porch and hose him down, scrubbing him with dog shampoo. When it’s cold (now) I have to take him to Petsmart to have them do it. Right now I don’t have the money to get him washed, but man does he stink.

That is all.

>So evidently President Obama feels that it is his place to tell us what radio programs we should listen to. Hmm. Mr Obama, is it still ok to listen to the Beach Boys, or are they forbidden? Should I have the ham sandwich for lunch, or turkey on wheat?

Charmin or White Cloud? Man, I have so many decisions I have to make every day, and it’s about time somebody got to the White House who can make those decisions for me.

And if that wasn’t enough, let me reword the end of the article, where the NY Post reporter felt he needed to twist the events around to emphasize certain things. Here’s what happened:

The President had a meeting with some House Representatives to go over his stimulus package. A Republican, Eric Cantor from VA, objected to the fact that Obama wants to give benefits to low-income people who don’t even pay taxes. The President’s response? “I won. I will trump you on that.” Maybe his response would make more sense if we knew word for word what the objection was, but the tone is definite. Obama thinks that, because he won the Presidential election, Congress is supposed to do whatever he wants. Someone needs to let him know, and fast, that while he may have a rubberstamp congress, that doesn’t mean Republicans have to be happy about what he wants to do. And if he goes too far, he may not like the result of those midterm elections.

It’s only a matter of time before he starts using the pluralis majestatis. You know, “We are not amused.” Because I know I’m not.