Why do I watch Idol? I don't like the show. I have no love for any of the judges or the host. I can't stand the way most of them sing. So why do I watch it? I have no idea. It must be the competition. The suspense of who will not be there, and watching the contestants squirm while they wait to find out. That must be it. I think I put myself in their position and identify with them. In real life I seem to always be in the position where someone else holds my fate in their hands, and I have to wait for the blade to fall.
I think we all are in a position like that often. That's why we watch. It's like a going to a bullfight and cheering for the bull. At a hockey game the real entertainment is if they get in a fight…to heck with the game. So why do I watch American Idol? It isn’t a civilized reason I’m quite sure.
Why do we watch the elections with fascination or the scandals in Washington as they unfold? Is it because we want to see somebody “git” it? Take Gonzales, the Attorney General for now. He can’t survive all of the attention he’s getting. We all know it so we watch the news and how it unfolds. We want to see a Mormon “git” it in the polls. We want Hillary to make it just because she’s a woman. Now the question is once she has the nomination what will we be hoping for? That she “gits” it and Rudy kills her on Election Day? Or are we watching and hoping she gets into office and messes up to the point that a woman can’t be elected again for sometime? Or are we just fascinated by the battle?
I’m to the point right now that I’d just as soon be voted off the Earth rather than go through all this nonsense. I’m tired of Democrats trying to embarrass Republicans, and Republicans trying to assert infallibility, and Obama trying to be white and Hillary trying to be Black, Rudy trying to be conservative, and Bush trying to be right. I’m tired of people having my future in their hands and toying with it. I’m tired of people telling me what to do and how to do it. I’m tired of being the person who can’t go anywhere or do anything, because someone somewhere thinks I should always be at entry level in authority and pay, as they pat themselves on the back. I had someone tell me an email I sent was condescending, in her own condescending tone of voice. I’m tired of bigotry, I’m tired of hatred, I’m tired of the election, I tired of Shawn Hannity, I’m tired of Rocky Anderson, I’m tired of American Idol. But I’ll probably watch it again next week. What else is there to do? Read a book? Even then someone is telling you what to think.
As a read this over I realize that there are a lot of people, if they read this, would say, “Take the bull by the horns, make something of yourself.” But you see every time I do that the crowd cheers for the bull. I cheer for the bull sometimes. After a lifetime of getting smacked down and getting back up, I’m running out of energy to keep getting back up. When does my turn come? There are no turns. You have to be the bull, and in the end you still lose. So what is the answer? Tell me quick before Idol (or is it Idle?) comes back on….PLEEEEAAAASE!!!!
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Monday, March 19, 2007
Cholo
I heard a number last week that was interesting. 23,000. The number alone doesn’t mean much. Put it together with 14 hours. Is it still extraneous? Try this number. 3,000, combined with 4 years. That set may be more obvious in today’s world. Here’s another one. 6,000 in 3 to 4 hours. That you’ll never guess unless you witnessed it. I did last Sunday night, and though similar astounding numbers were in play today as well, there’s only one number on my mind after the events of the last 72 hours or so. The number is one. That’s it, just one.
You see, the first number, 23,000 is one I learned this week in a PBS documentary about the Civil War. It is the death toll at the battle of Antietam, a battle that lasted about 14 hours. The numbers 3,000 in 4 years is the approximate loss of American soldiers in Iraq, which pales in comparison. The last number is the number of people who passed through a reception line last night to spend 30 seconds to offer their condolences to a young man’s parents, whose son was killed in a tragic accident. The number one…the dead boy who had such an impact on so many people that they were willing to spend their Sunday evening, and their day Monday saying goodbye.
One young man, age 18. His life snuffed out when he was doing something he knew he shouldn’t do. In his short life his vibrant personality, the twinkle in his eye, his laughter, his willingness to reach out to one person at a time and treat them as best friends, created one unforgettable legacy. His death devastated his family, his school, his friends, and relatives. I’m one of the latter. I didn’t spend hours and days with him. I did recognize his goodness and ability to light up a room. He had that charisma that is magical and unexplainable.
In 24 hours the world will rotate 360 degrees. 6,000 lives will go on. One mother though is living with a heart as broken as his body. One father has emptiness so very deep it will never again be full. One sister lives on with memories of a younger brother she will not have standing in her wedding line (as if he would have stayed put anyway). One cousin will miss his best friend. One 2nd cousin who always admired him and who wished he had known him better, will miss him because he was a joy to watch as he worked his magic. This is one young man who won’t go to war, one young man who won’t be there to make the outcast his best friend, one young man who made a mistake and left us all wondering what should have been.
And though the 23,000 and the 3,000 each has their own story, this one is one story that I know. This one is sad and tragic. I’m sure the others are too. But there is One whom we can turn to, all 6 Billion of us. Each one of us can seek the comfort from this One who weeps with us at what could have been, but will now use the experience of this one young man to help us all become better at being one who can make a difference. You weren’t perfect I know, but thank you, Cholo for being one with Him who heals us and makes miracles happen. Your life, though needlessly cut short, was not in vain and your death has helped to turn at least one heart toward a better path.
You see, the first number, 23,000 is one I learned this week in a PBS documentary about the Civil War. It is the death toll at the battle of Antietam, a battle that lasted about 14 hours. The numbers 3,000 in 4 years is the approximate loss of American soldiers in Iraq, which pales in comparison. The last number is the number of people who passed through a reception line last night to spend 30 seconds to offer their condolences to a young man’s parents, whose son was killed in a tragic accident. The number one…the dead boy who had such an impact on so many people that they were willing to spend their Sunday evening, and their day Monday saying goodbye.
One young man, age 18. His life snuffed out when he was doing something he knew he shouldn’t do. In his short life his vibrant personality, the twinkle in his eye, his laughter, his willingness to reach out to one person at a time and treat them as best friends, created one unforgettable legacy. His death devastated his family, his school, his friends, and relatives. I’m one of the latter. I didn’t spend hours and days with him. I did recognize his goodness and ability to light up a room. He had that charisma that is magical and unexplainable.
In 24 hours the world will rotate 360 degrees. 6,000 lives will go on. One mother though is living with a heart as broken as his body. One father has emptiness so very deep it will never again be full. One sister lives on with memories of a younger brother she will not have standing in her wedding line (as if he would have stayed put anyway). One cousin will miss his best friend. One 2nd cousin who always admired him and who wished he had known him better, will miss him because he was a joy to watch as he worked his magic. This is one young man who won’t go to war, one young man who won’t be there to make the outcast his best friend, one young man who made a mistake and left us all wondering what should have been.
And though the 23,000 and the 3,000 each has their own story, this one is one story that I know. This one is sad and tragic. I’m sure the others are too. But there is One whom we can turn to, all 6 Billion of us. Each one of us can seek the comfort from this One who weeps with us at what could have been, but will now use the experience of this one young man to help us all become better at being one who can make a difference. You weren’t perfect I know, but thank you, Cholo for being one with Him who heals us and makes miracles happen. Your life, though needlessly cut short, was not in vain and your death has helped to turn at least one heart toward a better path.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
The Little Blue Box
I'm getting too old. There I sat last night...putting pills into the little squares in little blue box for the next two weeks, so I don't have to remember which ones to take out of the bottle, and so I have plenty of lead time to order the next round. Instead of telling bar jokes mine go something like this...a man walks into a Pharmacy...sigh...I take too many pills one to make me happy, two to make my blood pressure better, 3 or more to make sure my heart doesn't stop, one to stop my nose from running all the time, one to make sure I have all my vitamins, one to make sure I have enough vitamin E, then another one to make me happy. Then some kind of goo that is supposed to fix something or other, I'm not sure what that one's all about...but it has something to do with one of those that keep my heart and other muscles running.
As I did that, I was just fresh from a Jr High School band concert my kid was in. I'm getting too old. The thing sounded like everyone was playing a different song. Someone was squeaking in the woodwind section. The drums were louder than the trombones...which sounded like WaAAAaaaH....when they were supposed to be WAAAAW. Then they brought out a choir that was too self conscious to sing loud enough. I was sitting next to a kid about the same age who seemed to know the music and was playing air drums and directing the band. My kid was in a bright orange shirt with a bow tie...the rest were mostly in white shirts...so he stood out, but I couldn't see him because he was further back in...and the kid on the end had hair that hung to his neck and in his eyes...which I'm sure made a mess of his glasses for the grease. Don't know how he was reading the music because his head was bobbing time...and the drummer I don't know what he was saying the whole time but he looked like he was counting time in some other language. I was irritated by the whole thing.
Which makes me wonder how I'm going to handle the grandkid. He is great right now...only 9 months old...but there's the two's and three's ahead and then of course the teens...but you see I'm getting too old now, what will happen when he starts getting into everything and making noise...and then there's the school plays and sports...and whew I'm getting older just thinking about it. I think I'll go add a few extra doses of that happy pill to the little blue box.
As I did that, I was just fresh from a Jr High School band concert my kid was in. I'm getting too old. The thing sounded like everyone was playing a different song. Someone was squeaking in the woodwind section. The drums were louder than the trombones...which sounded like WaAAAaaaH....when they were supposed to be WAAAAW. Then they brought out a choir that was too self conscious to sing loud enough. I was sitting next to a kid about the same age who seemed to know the music and was playing air drums and directing the band. My kid was in a bright orange shirt with a bow tie...the rest were mostly in white shirts...so he stood out, but I couldn't see him because he was further back in...and the kid on the end had hair that hung to his neck and in his eyes...which I'm sure made a mess of his glasses for the grease. Don't know how he was reading the music because his head was bobbing time...and the drummer I don't know what he was saying the whole time but he looked like he was counting time in some other language. I was irritated by the whole thing.
Which makes me wonder how I'm going to handle the grandkid. He is great right now...only 9 months old...but there's the two's and three's ahead and then of course the teens...but you see I'm getting too old now, what will happen when he starts getting into everything and making noise...and then there's the school plays and sports...and whew I'm getting older just thinking about it. I think I'll go add a few extra doses of that happy pill to the little blue box.
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
What does it take to be President?
I really got a kick out of Hillary and Obama last weekend trying to out black the other one in Selma Alabama. And Hillary of course had to drag out her southern accent. Face it no matter how hard she tries, she's still white. He's still a mixture and neither one of them were there when Selma went nuts. That is all just a bunch of fun to watch, the Demo's falling over each other trying to out demo the other demo....but the one that has my attention is the Republican side.
I mean there are a bunch of them running, a bunch that no one knows then there are the big three. Sounds like the auto industry. There's Mitt, and Rudy and that guy from AZ. McCain. Rudy can't possibly win because the southern baptists....oh excuse me the conservative christian coalition..my mistake, because he is in love with abortion. McCain can't win because he got mad at Fallwell last time, and Mitt, well he can't win because he's a Marmon...Mormon for people outside of southern Utah...oh and he loves gays.
Now here's the problem with all of that, Rudy isn't going to have any affect on abortion McCain is kissing up the Jerry and Mitt...well he's Mormon. I find it interesting that the so called Christians that gave us Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter, or the Catholics who gave us John Kennedy, with some of the most inept leadership and moral depravity...those Christians can't vote for a Mormon, because he believes people can become better than they are, who was elected in a state that gave us Kennedy and Kerry and the State Supreme Court that gave us gay marriage...that a guy like that who has nothing but excellent accomplishments to his name, who turned the Salt Lake Olympics into a model for future Olympics from the jaws of scandal...those Christians can't vote for him because he's one of them there Mormon guys. (you know he has horns and believes in polygamy don't you?).
I don't know if Mitt can win, and I don't know if he's the best choice, and I doubt it would be good for him to take his religion and allow the media to blame everything on his church once he became president anyway. But I see a lot more morals and the ability to try to be himself, than I do in any of the others. The Christian right gave us Bush for that matter and everybody hates him...and yes, I'll say it Gore may have won with a different vice-presidential choice..thank heavens Lieberman is Jewish...though a democrat an excellent statesman and would have been a good president when Gore resigned to make movies.
I just wonder where some people come off saying Mitt is Mormon so we won't vote for him...but we'll put Bill in office to do his hanky-panky, and Hillary we'll put her back so she can steal some more furniture. Did you ever wonder once her 8 years were over what she would do with Bill? Off with his head.....something we should probably pass along to most of the candidates now.
I mean there are a bunch of them running, a bunch that no one knows then there are the big three. Sounds like the auto industry. There's Mitt, and Rudy and that guy from AZ. McCain. Rudy can't possibly win because the southern baptists....oh excuse me the conservative christian coalition..my mistake, because he is in love with abortion. McCain can't win because he got mad at Fallwell last time, and Mitt, well he can't win because he's a Marmon...Mormon for people outside of southern Utah...oh and he loves gays.
Now here's the problem with all of that, Rudy isn't going to have any affect on abortion McCain is kissing up the Jerry and Mitt...well he's Mormon. I find it interesting that the so called Christians that gave us Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter, or the Catholics who gave us John Kennedy, with some of the most inept leadership and moral depravity...those Christians can't vote for a Mormon, because he believes people can become better than they are, who was elected in a state that gave us Kennedy and Kerry and the State Supreme Court that gave us gay marriage...that a guy like that who has nothing but excellent accomplishments to his name, who turned the Salt Lake Olympics into a model for future Olympics from the jaws of scandal...those Christians can't vote for him because he's one of them there Mormon guys. (you know he has horns and believes in polygamy don't you?).
I don't know if Mitt can win, and I don't know if he's the best choice, and I doubt it would be good for him to take his religion and allow the media to blame everything on his church once he became president anyway. But I see a lot more morals and the ability to try to be himself, than I do in any of the others. The Christian right gave us Bush for that matter and everybody hates him...and yes, I'll say it Gore may have won with a different vice-presidential choice..thank heavens Lieberman is Jewish...though a democrat an excellent statesman and would have been a good president when Gore resigned to make movies.
I just wonder where some people come off saying Mitt is Mormon so we won't vote for him...but we'll put Bill in office to do his hanky-panky, and Hillary we'll put her back so she can steal some more furniture. Did you ever wonder once her 8 years were over what she would do with Bill? Off with his head.....something we should probably pass along to most of the candidates now.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Global Whating?
OK so now it is March and as I'm shoveling another three inches of Al Gore's global warming off the driveway, I begin to wonder about how weird this world is getting. Not the environment. I'm afraid folks I just simply believe the environment is doing its thing and we're rather pompous to think we have much control over most of it. No, I'm wondering more about people who are so adamant that we are all going to become extinct, but before we do the war will make us all the moral equivalents of Hitler, and we should all just stay home and watch the pretty people on TV brag about their wives...these are the women I'm talking about, while they congratulate themselves on making boring smut. Other than that I don't have much to say about them.
I mean come on...they are people...big mouthed and making more money than they deserve. They sit in offices thinking up things we are doing wrong and insist we fix them, then try to normalize stuff we really don't like, because we are of course not enlightened. What these fools forget is they learned it from the 60s...if you say something long enough and often enough it becomes true...like there's nothing wrong with free sex, never mind the STDs, but go for it...and while you're at it go for it with a Duck or something else that strikes your fancy.
I do have to admit the radio stunt where the DJ married the Duck to protest marriage laws in his state was a hoot. Interestingly his wife's name was Lark.
But come on...John Kerry is as big a boob as he was when he turned tail on Vietnam...Al Gore is as stupid as his statement that he invented the Internet, and he stood by a President who pointed his finger (the middle one would have been appropriate) at the American public to admit he didn't have sex with that woman...but just in case what does sex mean? (It doesn't mean she didn't inhale Bill). I got up and left when that man/woman got on stage at the Oscars and thanked her wife.
I'm sorry, but there are some things that are wrong. That's one of them. And to say something like we regain our freedom in 2008 is just out of place. Those nose in the air attitudes and pompous pretty folk who know what is best, need to watch what Father knew back in the 50s and 60s. Not that we haven't progressed for the better, we have, but some guy licking some other guy's tongue in public turns my stomach. For that matter some guy licking some woman's tongue in public turns my stomach. Do I care who gets an Oscar. No. Do I care that Al Gore invented Global Warming? No. Do I care about if the car is going to get to work tomorrow in the snow...yep...sorry Al and the Academy, you've been switched off.
I mean come on...they are people...big mouthed and making more money than they deserve. They sit in offices thinking up things we are doing wrong and insist we fix them, then try to normalize stuff we really don't like, because we are of course not enlightened. What these fools forget is they learned it from the 60s...if you say something long enough and often enough it becomes true...like there's nothing wrong with free sex, never mind the STDs, but go for it...and while you're at it go for it with a Duck or something else that strikes your fancy.
I do have to admit the radio stunt where the DJ married the Duck to protest marriage laws in his state was a hoot. Interestingly his wife's name was Lark.
But come on...John Kerry is as big a boob as he was when he turned tail on Vietnam...Al Gore is as stupid as his statement that he invented the Internet, and he stood by a President who pointed his finger (the middle one would have been appropriate) at the American public to admit he didn't have sex with that woman...but just in case what does sex mean? (It doesn't mean she didn't inhale Bill). I got up and left when that man/woman got on stage at the Oscars and thanked her wife.
I'm sorry, but there are some things that are wrong. That's one of them. And to say something like we regain our freedom in 2008 is just out of place. Those nose in the air attitudes and pompous pretty folk who know what is best, need to watch what Father knew back in the 50s and 60s. Not that we haven't progressed for the better, we have, but some guy licking some other guy's tongue in public turns my stomach. For that matter some guy licking some woman's tongue in public turns my stomach. Do I care who gets an Oscar. No. Do I care that Al Gore invented Global Warming? No. Do I care about if the car is going to get to work tomorrow in the snow...yep...sorry Al and the Academy, you've been switched off.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)