I keep hearing it. From the democrats, from the republicans, from Faux news, The Daily Show and Real Time With Bill Maher.
Why? Why are the democrats going to lose?
Personally, I think that they stand a pretty good chance, especially in areas where crazies are on the republican ticket, like Delaware. I think that sane republican voters are either going to have to go democrat or go home.
And I'm not saying this out of any great love of the democrats. They've proven over the last two years what craven pussies they are when it comes to pushing their agenda. And the way that they're backing away from the few good things that they've managed to do over the last two years in order to pander to crazy voters really bothers me.
But.
Because Americans are so brainwashed into thinking that they have let a political party do their thinking for them, the so-called "third party movement" (there are really about a hundred political parties in the US) is, at the moment, dead in the water. So really, as much as I hate to say it, it really does come down to a "lesser of two evils" situation.
But you've really gotta admire the audacity of what the fuck that the republicans are pulling. With ad campaigns like "What? You guys haven't managed to fix in less than two years what it took us six to eight years to fuck up? Let us back in. After all, we broke it… who know better how to fix it?" Hand to God, America, if you put these pinheads back in office, I'm losing what little faith I have in you.
I'm going to the polls Tuesday and, as much as it pains me to admit it, simply voting a straight democratic ticket. I hate to do that, but the republicans have lost their way so badly that I feel I have no other choice. The dems at least TALK a good liberal game, even if they are unable or unwilling to back it up. Not one democrat out there is talking about legalizing pot, legalizing gay marriage, aggressively going after "don't ask, don't tell", or strengthening women's abortion rights.
Oh, and on another note. About the deficit. It has gone up a trillion dollars per year since 2003 roughly. Guess what? Next year it's expected to go up about another trillion dollars. You know why? BECAUSE ONCE YOU START A BOULDER ROLLING, IT'S HARD TO STOP, LET ALONE REVERSE. If we had president Sarah Palin and every seat in both chambers filled with wig-wearing tea party crazies, it would STILL go up about a trillion dollars next year. IT'S GOING TO TAKE TIME TO CHANGE IT! And I hate to get on the bandwagon of "anyone who doesn't support Obama is a racist", but why else are you guys suddenly pissed about this when it's been going on for eight years? The only other reason that I can think of is because he's a democrat and honestly… I'd prefer to think that you're racist. At least THAT requires some individual thought.
Peace.
Rev. Randal
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Buy My E-Book!
Probably the most exciting thing in my life right now is that one of my books has been published by Barnes and Noble at www.bn.com as an e-book. It is the first of my young adult novels called "Strange Middle School # 1: The New Kids" and can be purchased here http://search.barnesandnoble.com/books/e/2940011813344/?itm=60&USRI=new+kids
to be read on your Ipod Touch, Ipad, Android device, e-reader or PC. Hopefully this will help my goal of making my living with my writing.
Peace
Rev. Randal
to be read on your Ipod Touch, Ipad, Android device, e-reader or PC. Hopefully this will help my goal of making my living with my writing.
Peace
Rev. Randal
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Movie Review: A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
Let me start this review by saying that i am against remakes and sequels in general. With few exceptions, there are few or no reasons to do this. There are exceptions, such as Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong and Tron: Legacy. With the Jackson film, he had the opportunity to bring the Kong story to life in a way that those of us who grew up loving the original film could only imagine, and with the leaps in computer technology over the last thirty years, a sequel to Tron was inevitable.
So when i heard about a remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street, a horror film that i love and that legitimately gave me nightmares after the first time that i saw it, i shuddered... and not in a good way. Especially after the terrible remakes of House of Wax and Friday the Thirteenth.
THEN i heard that Jackie Earle Hayley, who played Rorschak to perfection in Watchmen, was going to play Freddy Krueger. I thought that if anyone could pull it off, Hayley could. And did.
THE GOOD: Hayley's performance, to start. He's probably the only actor who could have picked Freddy Krueger up and run with him, given his own performance without consciously or unconsciously aping Robert Englund.
They also stayed amazingly true to the original story. This time around Freddy is a child molester instead of a child murderer, which, if anything, makes the story even creepier. But they were smart enough not to mess with a good thing too much. Some of the lines from the original film ("I'm your boyfriend now...") made it through.
THE BAD: I don't usually use sports metaphors because i don't like sports or watch a lot of them, but i'm going to do it here. Imagine watching a football game where one team was comprised of Peyton Manning and a really good high school football team. That's kind of what it was like watching this. Hayley's performance as Freddy was so above and beyond any of the supporting performances that it overshadowed them. When Freddy's off the screen, you are just dying for him to get back on. Although the kids' performances are okay, you kind of start feeling like they're whining after a while, and honestly can't wait for Freddy to off them.
THE UGLY: Or, really, the potential ugly. The sequels. As the original franchise makers discovered, there's really only so much that you can do with this story. The sequels got progressively worse until the last film of the original franchise, The New Nightmare. In that one, Freddy started killing people on the set of a new Nightmare movie, and he was eight feet tall and scary as hell. If you haven't seen that one, watch it. It's really good. And i fear the same for this franchise. A movie makes a gajillion dollars and sequels are inevitable. I only hope that the filmmakers here are smart enough to do MAYBE two and then end it well, before they are reduced to Freddy doing knock-knock jokes like the first franchise.
Speaking of sequels, the cinematic genius/whore who made the first film, Wes Craven, is in the process of releasing Scream 4. I wonder if they're ever going to get tired of beating money out of that particular dead horse.
Peace.
Rev. Randal
So when i heard about a remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street, a horror film that i love and that legitimately gave me nightmares after the first time that i saw it, i shuddered... and not in a good way. Especially after the terrible remakes of House of Wax and Friday the Thirteenth.
THEN i heard that Jackie Earle Hayley, who played Rorschak to perfection in Watchmen, was going to play Freddy Krueger. I thought that if anyone could pull it off, Hayley could. And did.
THE GOOD: Hayley's performance, to start. He's probably the only actor who could have picked Freddy Krueger up and run with him, given his own performance without consciously or unconsciously aping Robert Englund.
They also stayed amazingly true to the original story. This time around Freddy is a child molester instead of a child murderer, which, if anything, makes the story even creepier. But they were smart enough not to mess with a good thing too much. Some of the lines from the original film ("I'm your boyfriend now...") made it through.
THE BAD: I don't usually use sports metaphors because i don't like sports or watch a lot of them, but i'm going to do it here. Imagine watching a football game where one team was comprised of Peyton Manning and a really good high school football team. That's kind of what it was like watching this. Hayley's performance as Freddy was so above and beyond any of the supporting performances that it overshadowed them. When Freddy's off the screen, you are just dying for him to get back on. Although the kids' performances are okay, you kind of start feeling like they're whining after a while, and honestly can't wait for Freddy to off them.
THE UGLY: Or, really, the potential ugly. The sequels. As the original franchise makers discovered, there's really only so much that you can do with this story. The sequels got progressively worse until the last film of the original franchise, The New Nightmare. In that one, Freddy started killing people on the set of a new Nightmare movie, and he was eight feet tall and scary as hell. If you haven't seen that one, watch it. It's really good. And i fear the same for this franchise. A movie makes a gajillion dollars and sequels are inevitable. I only hope that the filmmakers here are smart enough to do MAYBE two and then end it well, before they are reduced to Freddy doing knock-knock jokes like the first franchise.
Speaking of sequels, the cinematic genius/whore who made the first film, Wes Craven, is in the process of releasing Scream 4. I wonder if they're ever going to get tired of beating money out of that particular dead horse.
Peace.
Rev. Randal
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Waste
I think that we can all agree that we want our government to stop wasting money, right? Agreed?
Here's the problem...
What YOU consider waste, I may not consider waste. What I consider waste, YOU may not consider waste.
For instance, when Bill Clinton closed military bases that were redundant or useless, all that i heard from the right was how Clinton was weak on defense. Same refrain when someone talks about taking our troops out of Germany and Korea and Japan. I considered that cutting waste.
When i hear "universal health care for Americans", i hear an idea that will strengthen America. The right wing hears "waste" and "giving to those who won't work" and "welfare".
Look at it another way. Let's say that you hear about a government program that costs 2 million dollars per year, the objective of which is to set a clock in a government office. It gets off by one second per year, and it costs us two million dollars per year to have someone reset that clock by one second per year. Waste, right? Except then you discover that this program provides fifty jobs to your community. Is it still waste?
I think that what we need to do is to depoliticize this idea of waste before we can start cutting it.
Peace.
Rev. Randal
Here's the problem...
What YOU consider waste, I may not consider waste. What I consider waste, YOU may not consider waste.
For instance, when Bill Clinton closed military bases that were redundant or useless, all that i heard from the right was how Clinton was weak on defense. Same refrain when someone talks about taking our troops out of Germany and Korea and Japan. I considered that cutting waste.
When i hear "universal health care for Americans", i hear an idea that will strengthen America. The right wing hears "waste" and "giving to those who won't work" and "welfare".
Look at it another way. Let's say that you hear about a government program that costs 2 million dollars per year, the objective of which is to set a clock in a government office. It gets off by one second per year, and it costs us two million dollars per year to have someone reset that clock by one second per year. Waste, right? Except then you discover that this program provides fifty jobs to your community. Is it still waste?
I think that what we need to do is to depoliticize this idea of waste before we can start cutting it.
Peace.
Rev. Randal
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
2010 Vacation Day Three: Bozeman, MT to Rapid City, SD
Okay, so the Rainbow Motel's continental breakfast turned out to be donuts and coffee.
Not a bad little place, all in all. Beds are pretty comfortable, and it's quiet.
On the road again.
Let me tell you a quick something about me and this truck. I am six feet two inches tall and around 200 lbs, depending on what day you weigh me on. Lately I've pretty consistently been between 200 and 205. Mostly legs.
The truck that I rented from budget has a seat that is scooted almost all the way forward and cannot be scooted back, because if you do scoot it back, it runs into the front wall of the cargo unit. The upshot? Cramped legs.
After a couple of hours on the road today, the combination of cramped legs, squinting into the sun for several hours and a long road with no change of scenery or of speed limit or even any CURVES for hours on end started taking its toll and I started nodding off.
I HATE when that happens.
So finally, when I reached a rest stop, I got out and did a couple laps around the truck. This seems to have done the trick, and made the rest of the drive okay.
We made it to Rapid City, SD and got checked into our hotel by about six. Debated going to Wall Drug or one of the monuments tonight, but decided to just eat and rest and do them tomorrow.
My plan is to do that stuff tomorrow, then drive for five or six hours before getting off the road for the night. Then, on Thursday, home after about nine and a half hour's driving time (really ten hours or so on the road).
Our hotel tonight is the Foothills Inn for the amazing price of $39 for one night. Seems pretty nice. They have the standard continental breakfast, but they also gave us coupons for free sausage egg and cheese sandwiches for breakfast, so that'll be cool.
Tomorrow – Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and possibly Wall Drug.
Peace.
Rev. Randal
Not a bad little place, all in all. Beds are pretty comfortable, and it's quiet.
On the road again.
Let me tell you a quick something about me and this truck. I am six feet two inches tall and around 200 lbs, depending on what day you weigh me on. Lately I've pretty consistently been between 200 and 205. Mostly legs.
The truck that I rented from budget has a seat that is scooted almost all the way forward and cannot be scooted back, because if you do scoot it back, it runs into the front wall of the cargo unit. The upshot? Cramped legs.
After a couple of hours on the road today, the combination of cramped legs, squinting into the sun for several hours and a long road with no change of scenery or of speed limit or even any CURVES for hours on end started taking its toll and I started nodding off.
I HATE when that happens.
So finally, when I reached a rest stop, I got out and did a couple laps around the truck. This seems to have done the trick, and made the rest of the drive okay.
We made it to Rapid City, SD and got checked into our hotel by about six. Debated going to Wall Drug or one of the monuments tonight, but decided to just eat and rest and do them tomorrow.
My plan is to do that stuff tomorrow, then drive for five or six hours before getting off the road for the night. Then, on Thursday, home after about nine and a half hour's driving time (really ten hours or so on the road).
Our hotel tonight is the Foothills Inn for the amazing price of $39 for one night. Seems pretty nice. They have the standard continental breakfast, but they also gave us coupons for free sausage egg and cheese sandwiches for breakfast, so that'll be cool.
Tomorrow – Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and possibly Wall Drug.
Peace.
Rev. Randal
Monday, October 18, 2010
2010 Vacation, Day two: Cle Elum, WA to Bozeman, MT via Tokio, Moscow and Amsterdam
Tokio (WA), Moscow (ID) and Amsterdam (MT) that is.
Got up this morning feeling much more well-rested than I went to bed. Since i'm an insomniac, this is not always the case.
Stayed at Stewart Lodge in Cle Elum. Nice, older little motel. Help was friendly, Wifi had a good strong signal. The continental breakfast included donuts, muffins, biscuits, cereal and waffles. They also had coffee, cocoa, tea or two types of juice to choose from.
Had a little trouble finding the entrance to the eastbound freeway (it was about two miles from the westbound freeway), but once we got on the road all was well.
The biggest problem that I had on this journey was discovering how much it's going to cost to keep this beast of a truck rolling. $75 per tank! So today I put $150 in the tank.
Saw the aftermath of an accident in the westbound lanes of the freeway today involving at least three passenger vehicles and a semi. From the looks of one of the vehicles, i'm betting that it was a fatality accident.
Spending the night tonight at the Rainbow Motel in Bozeman. So far, the upside is that it's an old motel with cinder block walls, so no noise penetrates at all. The downsides include a miserably weak wi-fi connection, and a heater that doesn't really so much HEAT as WARM. It's more of a warmer.
Okay, going to bed.
Peace.
Rev. Randal
Got up this morning feeling much more well-rested than I went to bed. Since i'm an insomniac, this is not always the case.
Stayed at Stewart Lodge in Cle Elum. Nice, older little motel. Help was friendly, Wifi had a good strong signal. The continental breakfast included donuts, muffins, biscuits, cereal and waffles. They also had coffee, cocoa, tea or two types of juice to choose from.
Had a little trouble finding the entrance to the eastbound freeway (it was about two miles from the westbound freeway), but once we got on the road all was well.
The biggest problem that I had on this journey was discovering how much it's going to cost to keep this beast of a truck rolling. $75 per tank! So today I put $150 in the tank.
Saw the aftermath of an accident in the westbound lanes of the freeway today involving at least three passenger vehicles and a semi. From the looks of one of the vehicles, i'm betting that it was a fatality accident.
Spending the night tonight at the Rainbow Motel in Bozeman. So far, the upside is that it's an old motel with cinder block walls, so no noise penetrates at all. The downsides include a miserably weak wi-fi connection, and a heater that doesn't really so much HEAT as WARM. It's more of a warmer.
Okay, going to bed.
Peace.
Rev. Randal
Sunday, October 17, 2010
2010 Vacation, Day One: Fort Smith, AR to Seattle, WA; Seattle, WA to Cle Elum, WA
So, here's vacation...
Fly from Arkansas to Seatac, drive Budget rent a truck from Seattle to Arkansas via Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse. For those who don't know, my dad died from Emphysema last April. My mom has always wanted to see these two things, so I figured that I'd bring her with and she could see them for the first time in her life.
So... my younger brother was bringing me to the airport this morning. We had to be there at ten to five to get our six twenty flight. Problem? Getting up at 3:30. Didn't get to bed until about 11 last night, and then slept badly all night... unfamiliar room, unfamiliar bed and the neighbor's pet WOLF howling on and off all night (I am not kidding).
So, after a good solid two hours or so of sleep, my alarm went off, and I got up more or less bright eyed and kind of bushy tailed. Excited to fly again (first time in nine years), excited to be back in Washington. My kid brother... not so much. He slept until a little after four and still looked like he could use another several hours. I also realized that I had forgotten to write down the address of the rent-a-car place. No prob, I thought. I'll Google them on my cell phone at the airport and get the address.
So we get to the airport, brother drops us off, we go in and I scope out the check-in procedure. Went back to my mom and discovered that she had forgotten the letter from her doc that would allow her to carry medicine and oxygen concentrator on the plane. So my poor, tired bro had to turn around and come back. Fortunately, he hadn't gotten far. He brings it back, obviously anxious to get back to bed.
Check-in goes smoothly, 35 minute flight to Memphis goes smoothly. Guy meets us at the gate at Memphis airport with a wheelchair and takes us straight to the gate for our connecting flight. Check in goes smoothly, flight was... simply amazing, for someone who loves to fly but hates what the government has done to it. We flew so close to Mount Rainier (highest peak in contiguous United States) that it pretty much filled my window.
When I was a kid, and I tried to smile, I would wrinkle up my eyes. Felt like a smile, but apprently didn't LOOK like a smile to anyone else, who would always ask why I never smiled. So I watched other people smile and practiced it in the mirror until I developed one that didn't creep people out. Not too much, anyway. So I smile my good fake smile when I'm happy so people know that I am.
I realized, as I saw Mount Rainier and knew that I was home again... I was smiling for real. And I couldn't stop.
When we got on the ground in Washington, things went a little wonky for a bit.
All was going smoothly until my mom ran out of air when we tried to walk from luggage to the cab stand. It took them about a half an hour to find a wheelchair and someone to push it for us. Then, I found not one but THREE Budget rent-a-trucks in Renton. The telephone numbers for all three turned out to be disconnected. So as we're in the cab on our way to none of us really knew where, I finally got Budget's 800 number and got the address.
Then things went smoothly again. Went to the Costco location that I worked at locally before moving to Missouri, and was heartened by how many people not only remembered me, but expressed warm affection. Got to introduce my mom to some of the guys that love and consider some of my best friends there. My mom got comments ranging from “Randal's a good guy” to my favorite, from my friend Sean, who said “You've raised an interesting man there.” Backatcha, Sean. I miss talking to you. Got a case of water so we don't have to worry about finding any on the road, and Cattle Drive Chili con Carne, which we don't sell in the midwest. Delicious stuff. If your local Costco doesn't carry it, request it. It rocks.
Took my mom past the last apartment that I lived in here to show to her, and then headed for the storage unit. Only took me about 30 minutes to load up the truck, but, I'm sad to say, I lost a treasured possession. About nine years ago my friend Tami gave a neon sculpture of the Space Needle to me. Over the years, and through many moves, I struggled to keep it in one piece and succeeded. Today, as I moved a box, my neon Space Needle crashed to the concrete floor. It will be missed.
So we got on the road, me still feeling full of piss and vinegar. I figured four or five hours on the road and we'd be in Spokane, where we'd spend the night.
That was, of course, until the lack of sleep and long day caught up with me. So as I type this, we are at the Stewart Lodge in Cle Elum, Washington.
Peace.
Rev Randal
Fly from Arkansas to Seatac, drive Budget rent a truck from Seattle to Arkansas via Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse. For those who don't know, my dad died from Emphysema last April. My mom has always wanted to see these two things, so I figured that I'd bring her with and she could see them for the first time in her life.
So... my younger brother was bringing me to the airport this morning. We had to be there at ten to five to get our six twenty flight. Problem? Getting up at 3:30. Didn't get to bed until about 11 last night, and then slept badly all night... unfamiliar room, unfamiliar bed and the neighbor's pet WOLF howling on and off all night (I am not kidding).
So, after a good solid two hours or so of sleep, my alarm went off, and I got up more or less bright eyed and kind of bushy tailed. Excited to fly again (first time in nine years), excited to be back in Washington. My kid brother... not so much. He slept until a little after four and still looked like he could use another several hours. I also realized that I had forgotten to write down the address of the rent-a-car place. No prob, I thought. I'll Google them on my cell phone at the airport and get the address.
So we get to the airport, brother drops us off, we go in and I scope out the check-in procedure. Went back to my mom and discovered that she had forgotten the letter from her doc that would allow her to carry medicine and oxygen concentrator on the plane. So my poor, tired bro had to turn around and come back. Fortunately, he hadn't gotten far. He brings it back, obviously anxious to get back to bed.
Check-in goes smoothly, 35 minute flight to Memphis goes smoothly. Guy meets us at the gate at Memphis airport with a wheelchair and takes us straight to the gate for our connecting flight. Check in goes smoothly, flight was... simply amazing, for someone who loves to fly but hates what the government has done to it. We flew so close to Mount Rainier (highest peak in contiguous United States) that it pretty much filled my window.
When I was a kid, and I tried to smile, I would wrinkle up my eyes. Felt like a smile, but apprently didn't LOOK like a smile to anyone else, who would always ask why I never smiled. So I watched other people smile and practiced it in the mirror until I developed one that didn't creep people out. Not too much, anyway. So I smile my good fake smile when I'm happy so people know that I am.
I realized, as I saw Mount Rainier and knew that I was home again... I was smiling for real. And I couldn't stop.
When we got on the ground in Washington, things went a little wonky for a bit.
All was going smoothly until my mom ran out of air when we tried to walk from luggage to the cab stand. It took them about a half an hour to find a wheelchair and someone to push it for us. Then, I found not one but THREE Budget rent-a-trucks in Renton. The telephone numbers for all three turned out to be disconnected. So as we're in the cab on our way to none of us really knew where, I finally got Budget's 800 number and got the address.
Then things went smoothly again. Went to the Costco location that I worked at locally before moving to Missouri, and was heartened by how many people not only remembered me, but expressed warm affection. Got to introduce my mom to some of the guys that love and consider some of my best friends there. My mom got comments ranging from “Randal's a good guy” to my favorite, from my friend Sean, who said “You've raised an interesting man there.” Backatcha, Sean. I miss talking to you. Got a case of water so we don't have to worry about finding any on the road, and Cattle Drive Chili con Carne, which we don't sell in the midwest. Delicious stuff. If your local Costco doesn't carry it, request it. It rocks.
Took my mom past the last apartment that I lived in here to show to her, and then headed for the storage unit. Only took me about 30 minutes to load up the truck, but, I'm sad to say, I lost a treasured possession. About nine years ago my friend Tami gave a neon sculpture of the Space Needle to me. Over the years, and through many moves, I struggled to keep it in one piece and succeeded. Today, as I moved a box, my neon Space Needle crashed to the concrete floor. It will be missed.
So we got on the road, me still feeling full of piss and vinegar. I figured four or five hours on the road and we'd be in Spokane, where we'd spend the night.
That was, of course, until the lack of sleep and long day caught up with me. So as I type this, we are at the Stewart Lodge in Cle Elum, Washington.
Peace.
Rev Randal
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Strengthening America
The right wing gets pissed amazingly off when one of the left-leaning pundits dares to suggest that Americans are dumb. I personally tend to believe that we are not dumb, but rather breathtakingly, staggeringly ignorant and apathetic.
But, by the same token, with each generation being more pampered and privileged than the last, we are becoming intellectually weaker. With that comes in a drop in consideration for others that is amazingly dangerous for us as a society. I'm not proud of the fact that my generation is less intelligent and wise than my parent's generation, but I will admit. And the generation that now rules the world, the young people in their twenties and thirties, is even LESS intelligent and less wise. This is a troubling trend.
Think of it this way... and I don't apply this simply to my children's generation, but to my generation as well. A lot of this applies.
When it comes to food, we want the best and the healthiest and we want to pay as close to nothing as possible for it, and lose weight while we're eating it without doing any exercise.
We want the best schools, the best libraries, the best police force and firefighters and the best military on the planet, and we want it without paying any taxes.
We want to be able to text or talk on our cellphones wherever we want, including while driving, at the library, at the movies, in public restrooms, at restaurants and during sex, without anyone else getting pissed off about it or commenting on our conversation, which has also become (against their will) THEIR conversation.
We want America to be a strong nation, but want to do it without adequately educating our kids or providing food, housing or medical care to the less fortunate among us.
We have to change this trend, brothers and sisters. Mr. Bush, in one of his state of the union addresses, posed the question “Will we end well...?” Personally, I hope that we WON'T end, but we also can't survive and continue in the direction that we're going.
My parents worked hard to insure that I didn't inherit the prejudices that burdened them. I struggled not to pass on any bad attitudes that I had to my kids.
Educate yourselves. Educate your kids. Open your hearts, your minds and your wallets to help strengthen America, politically, physically, intellectually and emotionally.
Peace.
Rev. Randal
But, by the same token, with each generation being more pampered and privileged than the last, we are becoming intellectually weaker. With that comes in a drop in consideration for others that is amazingly dangerous for us as a society. I'm not proud of the fact that my generation is less intelligent and wise than my parent's generation, but I will admit. And the generation that now rules the world, the young people in their twenties and thirties, is even LESS intelligent and less wise. This is a troubling trend.
Think of it this way... and I don't apply this simply to my children's generation, but to my generation as well. A lot of this applies.
When it comes to food, we want the best and the healthiest and we want to pay as close to nothing as possible for it, and lose weight while we're eating it without doing any exercise.
We want the best schools, the best libraries, the best police force and firefighters and the best military on the planet, and we want it without paying any taxes.
We want to be able to text or talk on our cellphones wherever we want, including while driving, at the library, at the movies, in public restrooms, at restaurants and during sex, without anyone else getting pissed off about it or commenting on our conversation, which has also become (against their will) THEIR conversation.
We want America to be a strong nation, but want to do it without adequately educating our kids or providing food, housing or medical care to the less fortunate among us.
We have to change this trend, brothers and sisters. Mr. Bush, in one of his state of the union addresses, posed the question “Will we end well...?” Personally, I hope that we WON'T end, but we also can't survive and continue in the direction that we're going.
My parents worked hard to insure that I didn't inherit the prejudices that burdened them. I struggled not to pass on any bad attitudes that I had to my kids.
Educate yourselves. Educate your kids. Open your hearts, your minds and your wallets to help strengthen America, politically, physically, intellectually and emotionally.
Peace.
Rev. Randal
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Book Review: Dirty Sexy Politics by Meghan McCain
This is Meghan McCain's account of what it was to follow her father John on the campaign trail in 2008. The majority of it takes place between the time that Sarah Palin is picked as his running mate and a few days after the election. It's not very dirty. It's also not very sexy.
THE GOOD: I like Meghan McCain, and, up until Karl Rove stole her father's brain in 2008, I liked him. I realize that, as a liberal, I'm not supposed to admit to liking conservatives, but I do. (For the record, I also like Ben Stein and P J O'Rourke.) I like to watch her interviews. I think that she's intelligent, forthright and cute as a bug. Not to mention a little sexy.
She also takes the republican party to task for its changes. Here are a couple of quotes from late in the book, when she addresses the changes in the party of both she and her father.
“The bedrock of the republican party is freedom of the individual. Not groupthink. Not hatred. Not moral codes that we are supposed to live up to.”
She talks about the republican party's belief that each individual should be able to decide for themselves. Not, as she puts it, “... not their party, not their government, not a religious movement or an angry radio host.”
On the last page of the book, she says “... when a political party starts to put itself in a box, it's not a box... it's a coffin.”
THE BAD: I like Meghan McCain, but she doesn't use the tools of the writer's trade very well. Her sentence structure is sometimes odd, and her turns of phrase are sometimes off.
Her biggest struggle seems to be with commas. God knows I have my own issues with commas, but can usually overcome them with a careful edit. Meghan seems to have aimed a fully-loaded comma gun at her book and pulled the trigger. So you wind up with sentences like “Just seeing him, like that, made me cry”, or “He is a grill master, and loves feeding people”.
I would recommend to Meghan that she either take a little more care with her tools if she rights another book, or pay a professional editor to do it for her. I enjoyed her book, but found it a little frustrating to read for this reason.
THE UGLY: I like Meghan McCain, but she seems to (perhaps understandably) be incapable of viewing her father as a man, rather than an icon. She points out how narrow the republican party has become without acknowledging the narrow stances that her father took in 2008 in order to gain their support. She talks about how badly Sarah Palin disrupted things, but refuses to give her father any blame for Palin's presence or for allowing her to take center stage from the time she joined the race onward.
I like you, Meghan. But your dad fucked things up in 2008. As Arianna Huffington put it during the presidential race, “We all have to come to the realization that the John McCain that we all loved in 2000 is dead.” Your dad SHOULD have been the republican nominee in 2000. Were he, I would have voted for him, he would have become president and, I think, the world would be a better place. Especially our little corner of it, America. If he had stuck by his moderate roots in 2008, been the same candidate that he was in 2000, instead of taking that weird, disturbing lurch to the right, had picked a moderate running mate, I think that he would have given Barack Obama a run for his money.
Sadly, he didn't.
Overall, I recommend the book. It's an easy, short read (less than 200 pages) and a lot of fun. Hopefully, republicans will read this book and return to its traditional values of individual freedom and limited government before it lets the narrowness of the religious right and tea party movement tear it apart.
Peace.
Rev. Randal
THE GOOD: I like Meghan McCain, and, up until Karl Rove stole her father's brain in 2008, I liked him. I realize that, as a liberal, I'm not supposed to admit to liking conservatives, but I do. (For the record, I also like Ben Stein and P J O'Rourke.) I like to watch her interviews. I think that she's intelligent, forthright and cute as a bug. Not to mention a little sexy.
She also takes the republican party to task for its changes. Here are a couple of quotes from late in the book, when she addresses the changes in the party of both she and her father.
“The bedrock of the republican party is freedom of the individual. Not groupthink. Not hatred. Not moral codes that we are supposed to live up to.”
She talks about the republican party's belief that each individual should be able to decide for themselves. Not, as she puts it, “... not their party, not their government, not a religious movement or an angry radio host.”
On the last page of the book, she says “... when a political party starts to put itself in a box, it's not a box... it's a coffin.”
THE BAD: I like Meghan McCain, but she doesn't use the tools of the writer's trade very well. Her sentence structure is sometimes odd, and her turns of phrase are sometimes off.
Her biggest struggle seems to be with commas. God knows I have my own issues with commas, but can usually overcome them with a careful edit. Meghan seems to have aimed a fully-loaded comma gun at her book and pulled the trigger. So you wind up with sentences like “Just seeing him, like that, made me cry”, or “He is a grill master, and loves feeding people”.
I would recommend to Meghan that she either take a little more care with her tools if she rights another book, or pay a professional editor to do it for her. I enjoyed her book, but found it a little frustrating to read for this reason.
THE UGLY: I like Meghan McCain, but she seems to (perhaps understandably) be incapable of viewing her father as a man, rather than an icon. She points out how narrow the republican party has become without acknowledging the narrow stances that her father took in 2008 in order to gain their support. She talks about how badly Sarah Palin disrupted things, but refuses to give her father any blame for Palin's presence or for allowing her to take center stage from the time she joined the race onward.
I like you, Meghan. But your dad fucked things up in 2008. As Arianna Huffington put it during the presidential race, “We all have to come to the realization that the John McCain that we all loved in 2000 is dead.” Your dad SHOULD have been the republican nominee in 2000. Were he, I would have voted for him, he would have become president and, I think, the world would be a better place. Especially our little corner of it, America. If he had stuck by his moderate roots in 2008, been the same candidate that he was in 2000, instead of taking that weird, disturbing lurch to the right, had picked a moderate running mate, I think that he would have given Barack Obama a run for his money.
Sadly, he didn't.
Overall, I recommend the book. It's an easy, short read (less than 200 pages) and a lot of fun. Hopefully, republicans will read this book and return to its traditional values of individual freedom and limited government before it lets the narrowness of the religious right and tea party movement tear it apart.
Peace.
Rev. Randal
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)