Zomgee

“My job as a candidate for president is to speak the truth as I see it.” – John Edwards, Presidential candidate. [src]

How about just speaking the plain old truth – unmarred and untampered by any particular worldview?

So at work today, I found myself flipping through an issue of TIME magazine and thought I’d write about what I read (given the lacking amount of authoring coming from OhYo and HT). For those of you few people who don’t get TIME stocked upon your magazine racks at home, you might want to read that article before you continue to read this one.

Let me begin.

For any person, acknowledging the fact that the majority of people don’t mind the current government (but proclaim the opposite) and tell people that politicians run almost solely for their own ego- is quite a feat. It takes a person who is honest and quite bold to say that.

But think about it, it’s true. However, in his article, Michael Kinsley (the author, duh?) implies that this ambition is part of nature and almost.. excusable. To a degree, I agree with that, but there is so much more to the story. This idea of ambition being imparted upon graduates is not just about being the best you can be- it’s about helping society in how we act and the accomplishments we achieve. Frankly, we pervert that into being a solely self-seeking philosophy- get the best education we can, get the best job we can, get the best spouse we can, get the best car we can, have the most power we can… Granted, none of those things is inherently wrong, but it has become our society’s sole aim and focus (and when I say our society, I mean us).

I guess I don’t know where I’m going with this… As I read the article, I just got this sense of pardon from the author- like it was OK to have your ego stroked and strive only for self aggrandizement.

I’ve gotten a bit of backlash about my last post. People have called me negative, a “typical” Republican, etc. Don’t worry, I’m not “liberal bashing.” I apologize if you think so. While I don’t agree with the whole Democrat/Liberal party line, the Repubs have just as many problems when it comes to self-control and practicing some sense of morality. What I can’t stand, however, is this utter nonsense that politicians spew forth. Obama and Hillary arguing, Kerry backing Obama instead of Edwards (like his opinion really matters), Giuliani trying to sound moralistic when he’s had more wives/mistresses than Dick Cheney has had heart surgeries. I could go on about the bickering between Huckabee and Romney and allegations of campaign fund fraud, but I won’t.

The candidate who can rise to the level of being selfless in their ambition, humble about their accomplishments, and become more than just “the black guy”, “the woman”, “the POW”, “the mormon”, “the Christian”, or whatever their social sect might be- that person is who will be getting my vote.

I really need to stop writing about politics.

As a humble apology and desperate attempt to bring you content you haven’t seen yet, I give you… Cry baby Hillary.

One of the things that I love about Hillary, absolutely LOVE, is how she can sound like she’s making sense, but be speaking nonsense at the same time. For instance, the last sentence of that video clip is: “I just believe so strongly in who we are as a nation.” Huhwah? Now me, I personally believe so strongly in the child-like youth of a newborn baby. What does that even mean?

To add to the laughability, Hillary has completely altered her appearance to be more “I can change things, I’ll do what you want” etc etc, and yet in her short stint so far as senator, she’s accomplished next to nothing and she does not do what I want: quit. If she can’t even successfully follow through with eating right and excercising (as she says in the clip), how is she going to run a nation? She makes a huge deal (somewhat in this video, more elsewhere) about how being apart of a previous presidency (yet she never calls it what it is: a giant coattail ride the likes of which even Six Flags can’t even dream about) has given her experience and how she has had considerable time around the Oval Office. To that I say “Woah nelly.” Why? Well if she was truly around the Oval Office on a consistent basis, the name “Monica Lewinsky” might still be unfamiliar to us.

Over the past few days, I’ve been keeping on eye on the developments in Pakistan with the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, former prime minister of that country (1988-1990 and 1993-1996). Both times the president fired her for allegations of corruption.

Eventually, she exiled herself from the country for 8 years, and in October, returned. Her entrance back into the country, however, was met with an assassination attempt, killing 136 people in the process, but, miraculously, she was spared.

Since then, she has blamed the current sitting president, Pervez Musharraf, for not doing enough to ensure her security. On Wednesday, after leaving a rally, shots were fired at her vehicle and a bomb on a nearby motorcycle exploded. Today, however, more information was released as to how she died.

It wasn’t the gunshots (all 3 missed her). It wasn’t the bomb (directly, at least). Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto killed herself when she ducked back inside the sunroof she was standing through and hit her head on one of the latches for the sunroof. Apparently, the force of hitting that latch was enough to fracture her skull.

Man knows not his time- nor the means.

I glance at my television for one moment to find Fox News reporting a story live about a family who had been stranded in a forest in California. From Sunday to at the most Wednesday when reported rescued, a father and three kids, 12 and up, were “stranded” in the middle of Nowheretown, California trying to find “the right Christmas tree.” Oh, I’m on the edge of my seat now, bell and whooshing sound effects spam around trying to remind me how urgent this story is and how important it is for me to drop everything that I’m doing to watch Fox News and not any other channel, ever. (Side note: Apparently several websites have coined “Whooshes” for the term of these filler/attention grabbing sound effects.) Live on camera, the rescuer was interviewed about his heroic triumph; not sure if he was the pilot or not, but he was in the chopper. Over-exaggeration ensued as the ever so small window of opportunity so happened to allow them to find the frantic family on the very last pass in the helicopter. Of course it was the last pass, they found them; I don’t keep looking for my wallet after I find it. Anyway, short story long, Fox News was desperate for a “Holiday clip” that would buy them enough air-time to keep their almighty “24 hour news” status. The pilot wasn’t in a dangerous situation, the family was fine, just not smart enough to find/drink water, and the divorced mother probably just wanted to know if she could have custody now.

I always like to give people the benefit of the doubt. Hope they got their Saturnalia tree O.K. and celebrate their winter solstice, Saturn worshiping time well. Also, one cannot hate something that cannot hate them back, otherwise I’d state I hate television. The moral of the story is: Don’t go in the woods right before it snows, without a map, or without provisions to survive if you get lost. Also, don’t bother watching A Christmas Story, or any TV for that matter.

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