Disturbing email

A friend forwarded me an email that made me incredibly sad. In fact, I'm fairly amazed that he sent it to me in the first place, considering that we have discussed similar issues in the past and have extremely different views on things. I emailed him back asking him not to send me such bigoted emails anymore, and he responded that he didn't feel that any of it was bigoted. So, I'll put it out here. The italicized text is what he sent me in the original forward, the the normal text is my response.

Bet you stand up and say HELL YEAH! after you read this.

I like big cars, big boats, big motorcycles, big houses and big campfires.
Fine, then don't complain about gas prices as consumption goes up and supply goes down because we refuse to switch to alternate, and less damaging sources of energy. Also, don't complain about traffic on the way home, and wild animals in your back yard who have no where else to go. And certainly don't complain about your lung problems due to poor air quality, or about the enormous amount of money we pay to put out forest fires every year. Just go on with your life and ignore the fact that there are other people living on this planet.

I believe the money I make belongs to me and my family, not some governmental stooge with a bad comb-over who wants to give it away to crack addicts for squirting out babies.
I guess you don't believe in helping people get a fair start in life either. This argument of handing money away to crack addicts for squirting out babies is really overdone. The fact that a few undeserving people get aid is not a case for getting rid of social programs altogether, and it's certainly not fair to throw everyone who receives aid into the same boat. Our capitalist economy, by definition, exists due to a hierarchical society and a divide between the rich, middle class, and the poor. Some people are able to make it out of destitution, but many are left behind. In a country where our very economic system is built on keeping others down, doesn't it make sense to provide them with basic needs?

Guns do not make you a killer. I think killing makes you a killer. You can kill someone with a baseball bat or a car, but no one is trying to ban you from driving to the ball game.
Yes, killing does make you a killer and if you are convicted of a dangerous crime, you shouldn't have access to guns; there is nothing wrong with background checks to make sure that weapons don't end up in the hands of the wrong people. There is also no reason on earth that anyone needs an automatic rifle for hunting. Be a real man or woman and learn the craft - don't take the wussy way out.

I believe they are called the Boy Scouts for a reason, that is why there are no girls allowed.. Girls belong in the Girl Scouts!
Girl scouts and boy scouts do different activities. This statement is so sexist that I can hardly believe anyone would actually subscribe to it. I was in girl scouts and hated it. I was jealous of my guy friends who learned cool stuff in boy scouts. Why segregate kids and make them feel like there is something wrong with the other sex being part of their group and enjoying similar interests?

I think that if you feel homosexuality is wrong, it is not a phobia, it is an opinion. I don't think being a minority makes you a victim of anything except numbers.
Yes, it is a phobia of something that people don't understand, and it's obnoxious. Get over it, and accept that fact that people don't "choose" to be gay or lesbian. It's biological and found all over in nature. Of the many friends I've had who finally came out of the closet, none of them found it easy and none of them ever chose to be attracted to their same sex. Get your mind out of the gutter, and stop jumping to the thought of people in bed.

The only things I can think of that are truly discriminatory are things like the United Negro College Fund, Jet Magazine, Black Entertainment Television,and Miss Black America. Try to have things like the United Caucasian College Fund, Cloud Magazine, White Entertainment Television, or Miss White America and see what happens. Jesse Jackson will be knocking down your door.
Hmmmm...seems to me that there are very few popular television shows with a predominately black cast. Just because we don't call something "White Entertainment Television" or "Miss White America" doesn't mean that there isn't prejudice involved in our network programming. I don't feel threatened by programs or entertainment that cater to the African American population.

I have the right "NOT" to be tolerant of others because they are different, weird, or tick me off.
Fine, but keep your rude comments to yourself.

When 70% of the people who get arrested are black, in cities where 70% of the population is black, that is not racial profiling, it is the law of statistics.
Then how come the reverse isn't true? In cities where the majority of people are white, there is still a proportionately larger number of black people arrested. Why were kids in the inner city being arrested for drug use, while white kids at my school were getting away with it?


I know what sex is, and there are not varying degrees of it. If I received sex from one of my subordinates in my office, it wouldn't be a private matter or my personal business. It would be "FIRED" immediately!
Forget about Clinton already. He didn't do anything that half of the U.S. population hasn't done themselves. So what if he got a friggin blow job - the economy was great and we had allies around the world. Seems like a better world to me.

I believe that if you are selling me a milk shake, a pack of cigarettes, a newspaper or a hotel room, you must do it in English! As a matter of fact, if you want to be an American citizen you should have to speak English!
Well then - I suppose that you support a raise in taxes to fund better education, as well as volunteer for English as a Second Language (ESL) programs in your spare time to help in this effort. No? Really? Well, where do you expect these people to get the help that they need to learn English? I worked for six years in a community college, helping immigrants learn English. Most were so exhausted after holding down several jobs, and trying to find a babysitter for their kids that their progress suffered greatly. Most of them had crappy jobs I might add - cleaning up after everyone and doing the jobs that we are too good to do. And they put up with our self-righteous attitude and serve us just the same. You think that's fair? They work harder than most people can even think of, so if they don't speak English perfectly, give them a friggin' break and repeat yourself once or twice.

My father and grandfather should not have died in vain so you can leave the countries you were born in to come over and disrespect ours.
Why? We go and disrespect other countries all the time. For instance, what about everything going on in Iraq? It's a disaster, as I knew that it would be. I know people in the military who completely disagree with what we're doing there and want nothing more than to come home to their family and friends, but are unable to do so because of the oath that they took. However, many of them feel like everything is a sham and no longer believe in the cause, if they ever believed it in the first place. As it stands now, I will be paying for this war for the rest of my life, as will my children. And for what? Absolutely nothing.

Additionally, several of my family members have fought in wars past, and they fought for the ideal of freedom for everyone - including the people who come here from other countries. Lest we not forget, we are a nation built on immigrants. So, unless you're Native American, you have absolutely no reason to complain.

I think the police should have every right to shoot your sorry ass if you threaten them after they tell you to stop. If you can't understand the order"freeze" or "stop" in English, see the above lines.
Sure, see my thoughts above as well.

I feel much safer letting a machine with no political affiliation recount votes when needed. I know what the definition of lying is.
Obviously, you've never seen the track record of the company who created the electronic voting machines. See here: http://www.blackboxvoting.org/?q=node/view/78. I'd rather take my chances at having a monkey recount the votes.


I don't think just because you were not born in this country, you are qualified for any special loan programs, government sponsored bank loans or tax breaks, etc., so you can open a hotel, coffee shop, trinket store, or any other business.
The double-negative in this sentence notwithstanding, this is just ludacris. Our society and economy have benefited enormously from small businesses, many of which were started by foreigners. This is just almost too racist for me to even fathom.

We did not go to the aid of certain foreign countries and risk our lives in wars to defend their freedoms so that decades later they could come over here and tell us our constitution is a living document and open to their interpretations.
Well, here you go then: I'm a bona fide U.S. citizen, and I'm telling you that our constitution is a living document - that's what the amendments are for - duh!

I don't hate the rich. I don't pity the poor. I know wrestling is fake, but so are movies and television, and that doesn't stop you from watching them.
This statement doesn't even make any sense.

I believe a self-righteous liberal or conservative with a cause is more dangerous than a Hell's Angel with an attitude.
Alright, I see the point in this. Extremists either way are bad news. But the statements in this email just smack me as being from a conservative, right-wing nut case; so, you lose credibility based on that.

I think Bill Gates has every right to keep every penny he made and continue to make more. If it ticks you off, go and invent the next operating system that's better and put your name on the building. Ask your buddy that invented the Internet to help you..
Sure, no one has to give their money away, but I doubt that Bill Gates agrees with you completely on this. He and Melinda Gates have an entire foundation set up to give aid to people who need it. Check it out: http://www.gatesfoundation.org/default.htm. Also, taxes are the responsibility of everyone to pay, and those who make more money can more easily afford life's necessities as well as luxuries, so it makes sense to tax those who are barely making ends meet a lot less.

It doesn't take a whole village to raise a child right, but it does take a parent to stand up to the kid and smack his/her little ass when necessary and say "NO".
It takes more than a spanking to teach kids right from wrong. I do believe that children need boundaries and enforcement of those boundaries, but for many parents spanking becomes the only tool to get the children to behave and can lead to abuse. If you're not creative enough to figure out better ways to control your kids, don't have them in the first place.

I think tattoos and piercing are fine if you want them, but please don't pretend they are a political statement. And please stay home until that new lip ring heals, I don't want to look at your ugly infected mouth as you serve me french fries!
I'm not sure what this political statement thing is about. Piercings and tattoos are pretty main stream, and have more to do with the individual than what people think of them. My tattoo is for me, and me only. I couldn't care less who doesn't like it. I agree the lip ring thing is gross, and if that is a true case, that person should have been sent to a doctor for treatment of the infection and told to refrain from serving food until it healed.

I am sick of "Political Correctness" and of all the suck ups that go along with it. I know a lot of black people, and not a single one of them was born in Africa, so how can they be "African Americans"? Besides, Africa is a continent. I don't go around saying I am a European-American because my great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather was from Europe. I am proud to be from America and no where else.
Barring the fact that this statement is completely stupid - both Africa and America are continents afterall - we are again pointing to the black community as though the prejudice and past history of slavery in this country meant nothing. Although I was born in the U.S., my ancestry is German, French, Italian, and Spanish. I'm proud to be all of those things because it makes me unique, and has allowed me to appreciate and connect with my family's past. Political correctness can get out of hand, but why single out African Americans? There are so many other types of political correctness gone awry, that this one seems pretty silly in comparison.

And if you don't like my point of view, tough! GET OVER IT!!! WAKE UP WHILE YOU STILL HAVE A COUNTRY TO WAKE UP TO.

If you are not ashamed of America, forward this to everyone in your address book while you can still do it for free. !

I will wear all black tomorrow...

...in mourning for my country if Bush wins the election.

Growing fascism in the U.S.

Over the last four years, I've had a growing concern about the increase of über nationalism in our country. Especially concerning is the current attitude of unquestionable loyalty to the people in power at the cost of the rest of the nation.

A friend sent me a link to a Web site that highlights the following 14 points common to past fascist regimes (i.e. Hitler, Mussolini, etc.):

1. Powerful and continuing nationalism
2. Disdain for the recognition of human rights
3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause
4. Supremacy of the miliary
5. Rampant sexism
6. Controlled mass media
7. Obsession with national security
8. Religion and government are intertwined
9. Corporate power is protected
10. Labor power is suppressed
11. Disdain for intellectuals and the arts
12. Obsession with crime and punishment
13. Rampant cronyism and corruption
14. Fraudulent elections

Do yourself a favor and go to the site. It has a great explanation of each of those points, including links to information backing up how the Bush administration falls in line with them. If you care about the future of our nation, you need to read this and realize where we're headed - before it's too late. We have the benefit of hindsight here people!

George Lakoff's book is worth a read

Another interesting article for you: Winning Words on the Sierra Club Web site. I've been reading George Lakoff's new book, Don't Think of an Elephant and I'm really enjoying it. I've been coming up with all kinds of new ways to frame issues based on the stuff I learned. The article I've linked to is just a sampling of the information he covers in the book. Below I give you a little summary of what he talks about, but do yourself a favor and read it.

Lakoff asserts that conservatives are brilliant with the way they frame issues, which is why so many people end up supporting them even if the politicians and policies they are supporting end up only helping big business and the wealthy in the end. It isn't that people are stupid (well some are, but that's another subject - my opinion, not Lakoff's)); it's that they make associations based on the framing of what they hear.

A few decades ago, the republican party started putting a lot of money into figuring out how to frame their issues. Progressives need to learn a lesson and start figuring out how to frame issues in ways that people can understand, because obviously our pointing to facts and figures isn't changing the average American mind (as evidenced by the fact that approximately 1/2 the nation is still supporting Bush as the election nears).

Lakoff explains that people relate to politics in two ways, which he calls the strict father and the nurturant parent. He explains a bit about both of these things in the article, and they are helpful to understanding how people use frames to understand issues.

Take taxes for example. Republicans throw around the term "tax relief" all the time. By using the word "relief" in relation to taxes, they are creating an idea of taxes as a burden and something that people need to be protected from paying. Automatically there is a relationship built between those two words and suddenly taxes become a bad thing, even though we know that we need taxes to pay for things like roads and schools. Some other stupid things that republicans have framed well are No Child Left Behind, Clean Skies, Healthy Forests, etc. - these are all horrible in reality, but they sound good and most people don't have the time or want to delve any deeper than the name. "Clean skies - why that sounds great!" despite the fact that Clean Skies has actually led to more pollution.

So there you have it - a very brief description of Lakoff and framing.

Awesome opinion piece about the state of the nation

While reading this piece, We're Being Gaslighted, I found myself saying, "EXACTLY!", "RIGHT ON SISTER!", and so on. Oddly enough, this is written by an actual sister; Joan Chittister is a nun and best selling author. This particular opinion piece is just what we need to think about as we near election time. On a side note - check out some of the other stuff they have on their site - very interesting and timely.

Jon Stewart is awesome on Crossfire

I just have to say that I love Jon Stewart! Take a look at the clip of him confronting the hosts of Crossfire about their shoddy coverage - it's great! I especially love that the hosts completely missed the whole friggin point he had - that they should do a better job of giving us the information that we need. The kept telling him that he's more funny on his show, etc. Well, duh! Of course he is. He wasn't trying to be funny on Crossfire; he was trying to make a point. Someone needs to give those guys a pink slip if they're that dumb.

Political ads

I just watched a great program called Up Front with Robert Mak. The program reviewed several political ads making a rotation over the last few weeks, and gave information about whether the claims made in the ads were plausable.

The one that interested me most was one from George Nethercutt. He has been showing an ad of one of our current senators, Patty Murray, giving a speech at a school. In the ad, he shows a short clip of her explaining that Osama bin Laden has built roads, schools, hospitals, etc. and has made people's lives better. I was immediately suspicious about the context from which the clip came. Patty Murray is a wonderful senator and I knew that she couldn't possibly be making a statement that she liked Osama bin Laden. I had a feeling that it must have come from a larger analysis of why people follow bin Laden, which is something we desperately need to do to understand how to combat the problem at the source.

In the program, they asked Nethercutt whether he had taken her content out of context, and he said that he had watched the whole tape of her appearance at the school and did not take that clip out of context. Thankfully, Up Front showed over a minute of Patty Murray's speech from that day and I found out that my intuition was right. The statements that Nethercutt shows in the ad is just a short section from which Murray was talking about how to deal with situations such as the war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The full context of what she was saying about bin Laden specifically, was why people follow him. She pointed out that he has done certain things to make their lives better, and in areas that are so poor, a little bit goes a long way. She compared the cost of the war in those areas to the cost of building infrastructure there - both of which are very expensive tasks, but one of which would help to win the people (by giving them things that they desperately need) and that wouldn't cost lives. She admits that it's not a simple question to answer, but asks the students to think about alternatives and consequences to our current path.

I'm glad that Up Front showed a larger clip of her talk because I think it's important to know what these politicians are trying to pull over on us. All of the ads they showed had some questionable facts or statements to them, so it's just a good reminder to ignore the spin and look at the people and what they do when you're making a decision.

Little black dress

I have two late fall/early winter weddings to go to this year. It's a bit odd, since I think I've only been to two weddings at this time of year in my entire life, and suddenly I have two in the same year. Go figure.

Anyway, the problem that I have is that my lovely summer dress that I wore to numerous occasions (including a wedding and a 25th wedding anniversary party) won't really cut it for this time of year. If I wore it, I'd be likely to freeze my buns off.

I've looked online at all of the wonderful dresses out there, and of course the ones that I like are all several hundred dollars. I happen to be a big fan of Laundry by Shelli Segal dresses, but I really can't afford one right now.

Aside from the cost, I really need to just go to the mall and try some dresses on. I've found that some dresses that look lovely in theory are actually terrible when I put them on. It all has to do with body shape and finding the right style for you - not the stick thin models they use to show off the dresses.

It's times like these when I think men have it easier. Mind you, I love being a woman and being able to dress up all girly, but men have a pretty straight forward choice for weddings, no matter what time of year. Usually, the standard choice is a nice suit or pair of slacks and a nice button up shirt. And you can usually figure out which one of the two to go with depending on the time of day that the wedding is going to be held.

But with dresses, there are so many more to chose from, so many different colors, lengths, fabrics, etc.; and not all of them are suitable for various times of the day. Ugh. My head is spinning, how about yours? Well, it looks like I'm going to need to look for a new little black dress. I had one awhile back, but lost a lot of weight and now need to get something that fits properly. But certainly, the little black dress is the answer to my problem this time around.