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jaebrysonblog

Rant. Muse. Eat. Sleep. Recycle.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Other than, 'Don't do that,' what is the GOP agenda? Seriously.

I ask this question in all seriousness, because I've spent hours talking with my conservative friends who say we are now living in socialist hell because of Pres. Obama's policies. I am especially curious to hear the answers of the middle class conservatives who are angry to be bailing out their neighbor who overextended. Is your answer really to let this economy run its course with no governmental intervention? Really?


link | posted by Jae at 9:52 AM | 1 comments


Even as we go about our daily lives...

George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz et al are patting themselves on the backs for being private citizens who are not incarcerated. So, unless one or all of them decide to hold up a convenience store, that is the end of that. Don't let it eat you up.


link | posted by Jae at 9:47 AM | 1 comments


Tuesday, February 24, 2009

You know what's weird?...

I'm not carrying around the same anger that possessed me for much of the last eight years. I was no kitten-kicking anarchist; I simply lived a seething beneath the surface life. That happens when you get slapped frequently for no other reason than someone can do it to you. I was embarrassed when we bragged about torturing enemy combatants (slap) and mortified when speaking out against that was considered anti-American (slap). I was flabbergasted at the chutzpah of Lynn Cheney, an openly lesbian woman who practiced the most divisive of sexual and racial politics despite being a target for her compatriots (slap); I was dumbfounded that Halliburton could rummage through our pockets while soldiers died thanks to their bumbling (slap). I was astonished to see an alleged president of the United States so publicly bought and sold by business interests (slap). I despised Dick Cheney and he didn't care (slap). I watched a Justice Department drop racial and sexual discrimination cases so they could protect the interests of white, conservative Christians who apparently were in some kind of danger (slap).

I feel like a character in Portnoy's Complaint; I have awakened from those eight years and the only thing I can muster is: WTF?

What the fuck was that about?

Still, I'm not angry. Would I like to see Bush and his cronies doing time for robbing this nation blind? Yeah, sure. But, more importantly, we've got to fix a whole bunch of crap. I am... resigned to the notion that the party is over and things will be different.

Not that you can tell with the conservative GOP crowd. Lots of obstructionism going on there. A woman named Tara Wall, a GOP operative, twisted Attorney General Holder's words around to make him out to be some kind of racist. He said Americans are often cowardly when it comes to true discussions about race - and I agree. What encouraged me about Wall's comments (as well as Limbaugh's, McConnell's, McCain's, Palin's) are that in the wake of eight years of being slapped in the face by this crowd, we recognize it as the BS that it is.

Wall, for instance, went so far in her attack on Holder that she praised all the white voters for Obama -- the vast majority, of course, being white, DEMOCRATIC voters. Oooh! I bet she wishes she could take that sentence back.

You see, it's just like my mother told me. If you do dirty things and don't change, you're going to end up in places you don't want to be.

So, in conclusion, my life right now can be summed up by my last visit to Ruby Tuesdays, when the waitress wanted to know if I needed more lemonade.

"Nah. I'm cool," I said.

And, I am.


link | posted by Jae at 1:52 PM | 1 comments


Monday, February 23, 2009

Just Got Back and I'm Getting Crap Already

OK Anonymous -
In answer to your "It appears random" remark about my first posting since the Jurassic era: thank you. It is nice to have some interaction, even if it's being poked at.

I am moved by glances, music, smells, bells and kind remarks. If moved enough, I will do what I did in the last election season -- give money I don't have to a candidate I will never meet in the hope that some small part of life in the U.S. will be better than it was before. Talk about your Chaos Theory.

But, mostly, I'm moved by small things... smells, bells, you remember (hell, it was in the last sentence). This particular song, "Flagpole Sitta" by Harvey Danger (no, it's not Lit and it's not Green Day) reminds me of how close this American Family is, even when we hate each other much of the time.

I am moved by the fact that a silly song from 10 years ago, written by someone much younger than me, from a different race and area of the country, could speak so directly to me. It's that American Family thing, again.

It's not the best part of me, admittedly, given this lyric: "I'm not sick but I'm not well/and I'm so hot/'cause I'm in hell/been around the world/and found that/only stupid people are breeding/the cretins/cloning and feeding"

Still, it's cathartic.

So, in conclusion - 'Yes. It was random, but I liked it."


link | posted by Jae at 3:17 PM | 1 comments


I'm Back! Redux

My easy listening recommendation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TSYEPPkCBQ


link | posted by Jae at 9:15 AM | 2 comments


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