The throwing of the shoes

Hopefully I won't be jailed for saying this, but I have been laughing hysterically over President Bush having shoes thrown at him in Iraq. I suppose it's funny to me because I think he exudes absolute arrogance by going over there one more time before leaving office and acting as if everything is okay when in reality he has created a total mess for Iraqis, for American troups and their families, and many other people living in the middle east. The person who threw those shoes threw them for me, for you, for anyone who can't believe we ever started this war in the first place. He threw those shoes in frustration at the mess that Bush has created abroad and I laugh because I would have liked to throw those shoes too because of my frustrations over the mess Bush has helped create here in America and abroad.
What really bothers me now is that while I can play games on the internet that allow me to throw shoes at the face of president Bush, Muntazer al-Zaidi is in jail for doing throwing them--for actually calling Bush out about his bold arrogance.
How can we get this man out of jail? I wish that I knew. If rudeness were something you should be jailed for, then shouldn't President Bush be locked up too?

Stop the Economic Meltdown! with positive thinking and funny phone stalker stories

Hasn't anyone in the media ever heard that thinking positive thoughts brings positive energy and continuing to focus on the negative brings about more of the negative? I guess not, since they keep reporting how thousands of employers are shedding jobs and giving pinkslips right before the holidays. Maybe if they focused on how the new president's policies will pull us out of the slump and bring new freedom to America, things would start to get rosier. But really what do I expect since if you turn on the 10 o'clock news all you see are the murders, muggings, and molestations that have happened in the course of a day. No merry, mutinous, molasses for them.

So how about if I tell a funny story to liven things up and keep focused on the positive...

Last night, we didn't answer the phone so someone called several times and hung up without leaving a message. (Yes, I know, I'm probably the only person in the nation without caller id.) My husband says, "it's probably the bank calling to sell us something again."
So this morning, the kids and I are eating breakfast before running out the door to school. The phone rings, I jump up to get it - it only rings once and hangs up. Then it happens again--same thing. Then one more time. After breakfast, I'm in the kitchen and it rings again and a second time, exasperated, I grab it and say "hello".
It's my grandmother (who's known for not leaving messages) and she wants to know whether movies she's getting the kids for Christmas should be VHS or DVD. I say DVD but not that Blue-ray because we don't have that (of course we don't since we don't have caller id). I don't have the heart to tell her that they stopped making VHS several years ago. And I certainly don't have the guts to call her a phone stalker! Instead, I email my sister the story and she laughs because she's been stalked by her too.

Why We Fight - a movie about the military-industrial complex

We watched this documentary tonight that made me want to cry. It talks about war and the complex reasons why we are at war--complex reasons that have nothing to do with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for individual citizens. The movie takes off on a statement in Eisenhower's last presidental speech/address that warns us of the military-industrial complex. (his speech: http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/indust.html). The movie was depressing and although shocking wasn't really beyond what I already believed was going on between corporations and the government. What really struck me was going online to the text of Eisenhower's speech and seeing that he spoke of balance:
Crises there will continue to be. In meeting them, whether foreign or domestic, great or small, there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties. A huge increase in newer elements of our defense; development of unrealistic programs to cure every ill in agriculture; a dramatic expansion in basic and applied research -- these and many other possibilities, each possibly promising in itself, may be suggested as the only way to the road we wish to travel.
But each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs -- balance between the private and the public economy, balance between cost and hoped for advantage -- balance between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable; balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual; balance between actions of the moment and the national welfare of the future. Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration.
Then he identified two things that could have devastating effects for us: 1. was the military industrial complex and 2. was time--with this he indicated that we should avoid living only for our own convenience and thus plundering our children's future for our immediate needs.

Amazingly both of these terrible things have come to fruition. What we need to consider now, is can we reverse this or will the United States simply fail? This is not what John Lennon imagined when he said "living for today."

I place my hopes in President Obama, but I fear those of the military industrial complex and all those others who only live for what they can get and don't see the point in seeking a better tomorrow.

the bailout

The election is over--what a relief! George Bush is on his way out and maybe now something will change for the better. Maybe corporations will cease to be in charge of Americans and Americans can gain back their power to decide what happens in this country. It amazes me that in most other democratic countries, the citizens and government make decisions about what is best and the corporations have to modify their business to support those decisions. Not here....making money is more important that poisoning or killing our citizens.
I still am not sure how Americans can reconcile a failing economy--that is based on consumers buying and consuming crap, dumping it, and then buying and consuming more crap--with our needs for improving our environment and educating our children. A better world is not to be had by fixing an economy that is so broken it's not worth fixing. We need to base our means of generating income on something other than consumer crap--it's a losing proposition. But as long as Walmart and General Motors are running the country, corporations will continue to push products to consumers like drugs. Don't we all feel so much better after spending all our income on shitty stuff and filling our houses so full that we can't move?
The 700 billion dollar bailout really pisses me off. We should have just said enough already of this and let it all fail...then we could rebuild something better. Instead the money will be gifted to corporations who already don't have the people's best interests in mind. Why would the government think the corporations and banks would do anything but serve their own interests--it's what they've always done.
We're not bailing out our economy or the American people...the only ones being bailed out are corporations and maybe a few rich owners. Do they really deserve it? Do people that have lived beyond their means, showed off, thought themselves better than the average citizen really deserve to be bailed out?
The old boys network is lining its own pockets once again.
Hopefully gentleman, the cash will be confiscated soon.

Prop 2 and Prop 8

Apparently human's kindness toward the animals they plan to eat is not the same sort of kindness that extends to their fellow humans who want to be left in peace to marry whomever they choose.

Husbands, Housework, and Homelife

My husband cleaned the whole house (except the toilets and the stove) this weekend. Of course the kids spilled food after that and he is upset that things are a mess again on Sunday night. Somehow it's my fault because I'm always working the odd hours teaching job that I have or always on the computer and it's my fault we don't have any money but I'm blaming him and making him feel inadequate because I say he doesn't make enough at his job and he's thinking of getting a second job. Writing this down it sounds completely insane, I guess because it is just a rant. He's really upset about something else probably the fact that we don't have any time together or the fact that he wants to have more money to spend on extras. What I can't understand is why he can't factor in that I didn't work all summer, he just switched jobs, I'm doing our health insurance now, we had 3 kids birthdays, school started and that these things have all contributed to the fact that we are broke until I get paid on Friday. But what really is devastating to me is that Friday is only 4 days away and we have plently of food to scrape together but he can't wait.
This leads him in to a name calling, blaming tirade about how horrible things are because of the job I have and how I should go out and get a full time job and put the kids in daycare or an afterschool program because they'll be fine and everyone else does it. But when it comes down to it, he is critical of every outside childcaretaker that we have ever had when the kids were small. Plus if I worked fulltime, I'd still have to come home and cook and prepare the kids for school/daycare. Not to metion that the semester has already started so how can I possibly take on more classes or give up the classes I'm already in the middle of to find/take some other job that I don't even want to do.
Ranting Ranting Ranting while I ramble about his ranting.
None of it makes any sense---the bottom line is that he's unhappy and the only way he can express it is to name call, and yell at me for things I can't really change.
Should I be responsible for his unhappiness? No, I can't take responsibility for that. I feel like I'm doing the best I can. I do my work while our littlest naps, I work at night--during the day I try to focus on the kids, do homework, make food, some laundry.
It's always like this when I start work again. Maybe I try too hard at my job. During the summers things are peachy at home because there is no tension because of me working. Last night he was upset for having to bend his work schedule because of my career. Even if I worked full time, who the hell would have to take care of the kids, stay home when they're sick, etc. I can't do it all.