You heard me. Need I even elaborate? The past week has made me, and several of my like-minded friends, neighbors, co-workers and peers, remember why we hated politics back when we were young and idealistic. Because with all this money and power involved, it very quickly devolves into playground squabbling, followed by verbal defamation, possibly some hair-pulling, muck-raking, and then pretty soon all of us are gathered around the opponents in a frothing-at-the-mouth throng chanting "KILL HIM/HER! KILL HIM/HER!! JUST KILL SOMEBODY SO WE CAN GO HOME!" Sure the media does its part in amplifying all this mass hysteria, but CTJ folks, sometimes it seems like all of us have taken leave of our senses by not simply refusing to consume the pap that passes for news these days.
That said, Hillary needs to drop out of the race, and soonish. I should provide the disclaimer here that I was/am a pledged delegate for Obama in my in county convention just yesterday. However, before this past week of scorched-earth playground politics, I could have honestly said that I would be fine with voting for either candidate, provided we get a Democrat in the White House come next January,and then we can set about putting this country back on course. Not anymore. The race-baiting, the silly-ass "red phone" ad, the snarkiness and just plain incivility of her comments toward Barack and his record - nuh-uh. Not good enough. I mean, it's clear she's grasping at straws and going on the attack because in reality he outshines her in every way, but this sniping is damaging the goodwill of the voters, could destroy her political career forever, and if she actually allows the Democrats to do what they're best at and snatch Defeat out of the jaws of Victory, this country will be destroyed. We don't have 4 more years left to trifle away in delusional denial. Heck, we didn't even have the 8 years utterly wasted thus far under the Bush cartel's regime. Now we have even LESS time to get these assclowns impeached, imprisoned, and generally rendered impotent for the foreseeable future before an economic / environmental disaster befalls us.
If you haven't noticed, people here don't prepare for disaster, even the ones that are clearly in sight and headed right for us, for shit. In Anthropology this is known as proximal vs. ultimal cause. Humans are really pretty good at avoiding immediate (proximal) causes of danger or death, say, a lion chasing them, but our brains are still way too grounded in that ol' reptilian cortex to think about the causes of death & danger that are far away (ultimal). In "civilized society" where most proximal causes of death are removed (aside from freak accidents, which most people just chalk up to "fate" and decide not to worry about)people grow soft and complacent and usually decide to do nothing about the ultimal causes as well, even though our brains are big enough now, and we have more information at our fingetips than at any time in history, to avoid just about anything catastrophic. Thusly, you see people still smoking even though they know it will eventually kill them, driving like bats out of hell for as long as they can get away with it, and for that matter, driving SUVs to the grocery store even though we all know (don't we? Is that a separate CTJ?) that global warming is very likely going to wipe out all life on this planet ... in a hundred years or so.
Another way to look at it is what I termed the "Mardi Gras" effect back in 1991. People are well aware that many of the resources/conveniences/cheap luxury goods are going away, and fast, but does that make them conserve what we have now? Hell no! Drink up! Big 40-days of fasting coming on, Live it up before we die! Dying's inevitable anyway, who cares if its tomorrow! Woohooo! Real-world example: right after the 1st Gulf War, in which untold 100's of people lost their lives so the U.S.A. could continue its voracious consumption of petroleum products unabated, American car companies gambled that the Mardi Gras effect would hold true as ever (given that everyone with more than 2 brain cells knew the Gulf War was the first toll of the bell for the end of cheap oil) and started manufacturing loads of these weird, ugly little passenger trucks termed "Sport-Utility Vehicles" that got an average of 15 miles to the gallon. They gambled correctly- Americans went out in droves, like so many ego-compelled lemmings, and bought them, even though the most precarious thing they ever drove through was maybe a mud puddle.
but I digress.
Hillary's critics were always complaining that she was too "ambitious" way before I thought so, and she's been accused of putting herself and those ambitions way ahead of the country, and the people. I really thought that was just so much sexist bullshit agita before this past week. But now, she's proving those critics correct, and showing her true, blinded by ambition, face to the American people. Let's hope her supporters CTJ before she does and give her a wake up call. That's one red phone I'd love to see ringing in her house. :)
Come, little children
Read 1st Post for Instructions
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
COME TO CHEEZUS
COME TO CHEEZUS :)
Category: Religion and Philosophy
HEE HEE. So I realize this "come to Jesus" thing is pretty damn intimidating for most people, who may think I'm asking friends and strangers to bare their souls and confess past sins and whatnot, and that ain't necessarily so. Confess if you want, but Comin' to Jesus is more about admitting big AND little things that aren't going according to plan, going well, going anywhere... and it's time to "give up the ghost" as it were.
IN that vein, I offer up another small CTJ that I performed over the weekend.
Since the Superbowl, I've had this leftover nacho cheese dip wrapped in plastic, at the back of the fridge. It was still in the handy removable crock-pot tray that we had heated it up in, so, theoretically, still heat-up-able and edible.
I had such high hopes for this cheese dip. I insisted on making it, with a pound of Albertson's brand Velveeta and a couple cans o' Ro-tel spicy tomatos, and lo and behold, not even my hollow-legged husband could finish it all.
So we froze the remainder, and one month later, took it to a friends' housewarming party as our potluck contribution. No, I'm not kidding. However, said husband forgot to ;put water in the bottom of the crockpot this time, so the cheese dip never really heated up, and only one person partook of it. (me)
Disappointed, we carted the dip home once again. And this time, put it in the back of the fridge where things tend to freeze.
ANd every weekend, i said to myself "I'm going to heat that stuff up and snack on it all day."
Well friends, guess what. Yep. Never happened. With a heavy heart, I had to come to cheezus, acknowledge that my own rule of food consumption - "No Visible Mold" had been broken, and chuck the stuff this past weekend, a full 3 months and 3 weeks after its creation.
And lo, I am sorely relieved. :)
Category: Religion and Philosophy
HEE HEE. So I realize this "come to Jesus" thing is pretty damn intimidating for most people, who may think I'm asking friends and strangers to bare their souls and confess past sins and whatnot, and that ain't necessarily so. Confess if you want, but Comin' to Jesus is more about admitting big AND little things that aren't going according to plan, going well, going anywhere... and it's time to "give up the ghost" as it were.
IN that vein, I offer up another small CTJ that I performed over the weekend.
Since the Superbowl, I've had this leftover nacho cheese dip wrapped in plastic, at the back of the fridge. It was still in the handy removable crock-pot tray that we had heated it up in, so, theoretically, still heat-up-able and edible.
I had such high hopes for this cheese dip. I insisted on making it, with a pound of Albertson's brand Velveeta and a couple cans o' Ro-tel spicy tomatos, and lo and behold, not even my hollow-legged husband could finish it all.
So we froze the remainder, and one month later, took it to a friends' housewarming party as our potluck contribution. No, I'm not kidding. However, said husband forgot to ;put water in the bottom of the crockpot this time, so the cheese dip never really heated up, and only one person partook of it. (me)
Disappointed, we carted the dip home once again. And this time, put it in the back of the fridge where things tend to freeze.
ANd every weekend, i said to myself "I'm going to heat that stuff up and snack on it all day."
Well friends, guess what. Yep. Never happened. With a heavy heart, I had to come to cheezus, acknowledge that my own rule of food consumption - "No Visible Mold" had been broken, and chuck the stuff this past weekend, a full 3 months and 3 weeks after its creation.
And lo, I am sorely relieved. :)
CTJ: NIRVANA SUCKS/SUCKED
Come on now, it's 2007. Can we all Come to Jesus about the fact that Nirvana sucked? Has Cobain been dead long enough so that we can respectfully cut the crap about his overrated, lame-ass, whiny little attempt at "alternative music" and move on? I think if we could CTJ about this, we could probably solve the crisis in the Middle East as well. Piece o' cake.
Admittedly, I'm using this as a litmus test for the MySpace community, and trying to goad die-hard Nirvana-sucks Deniers into commenting or responding in some way.
Bring it on!
Maybe they were the soundtrack to your grunge-soaked, halcyon college days during which you a) lost your virginity b) partied hard c) made the best friends ever or d) all of the above - but that still doesn't change the fact that they sucked.
Admit it, you were listening under the influence.
With enough beer, and no adult supervision, Nirvana rocked your world and so did that frat boy you lured back to your dorm room.
And the next morning, you should have puked and repented all three.
Just like I puked when I heard that Cobain and Grohl (or whoever, lay off me I don't know their damn names) listed one of my favorite bands, the Meat Puppets, as one of their prime influences.
Instant migraine, there. Seriously? HA! They WISH they had been influenced even a smidgen by the MP's - but alas, they could only aspire wistfully to the amazin' blazin' talent the Meat Puppets possess/possessed.
Still not convinced?
Listen to your old CD of "Nevermind", sober, and then listen to, oh, almost anything else, sober - but preferably someone who lampoons the likes of Nerve-blah-nah, like Todd Snider's "Talkin' Seattle Blues." Laugh your ass off at your old self, laugh at the grunge bands now long since deservedly dead, laugh at how seriously people took themselves during the greatest economic expansion in US history... just laugh, and reminesce. With Jesus.
Admittedly, I'm using this as a litmus test for the MySpace community, and trying to goad die-hard Nirvana-sucks Deniers into commenting or responding in some way.
Bring it on!
Maybe they were the soundtrack to your grunge-soaked, halcyon college days during which you a) lost your virginity b) partied hard c) made the best friends ever or d) all of the above - but that still doesn't change the fact that they sucked.
Admit it, you were listening under the influence.
With enough beer, and no adult supervision, Nirvana rocked your world and so did that frat boy you lured back to your dorm room.
And the next morning, you should have puked and repented all three.
Just like I puked when I heard that Cobain and Grohl (or whoever, lay off me I don't know their damn names) listed one of my favorite bands, the Meat Puppets, as one of their prime influences.
Instant migraine, there. Seriously? HA! They WISH they had been influenced even a smidgen by the MP's - but alas, they could only aspire wistfully to the amazin' blazin' talent the Meat Puppets possess/possessed.
Still not convinced?
Listen to your old CD of "Nevermind", sober, and then listen to, oh, almost anything else, sober - but preferably someone who lampoons the likes of Nerve-blah-nah, like Todd Snider's "Talkin' Seattle Blues." Laugh your ass off at your old self, laugh at the grunge bands now long since deservedly dead, laugh at how seriously people took themselves during the greatest economic expansion in US history... just laugh, and reminesce. With Jesus.
COME TO JESUS, SISTHREN & BRETHREN
OK FOLKS- You read the headline, here's the deal. I've been wanting to hold some kind of forum online for people of privilege, specifically, to come forward and 'fess up to the fact that all of their entitlements, adventures, wealth, good things in general are due to their wealth and privilege and NOT due to any specialness that they have themselves created. Then I thought, wow, won't that be a dead forum. The blog equivalent of crickets chirping, essentially. Because seriously, when's the last time you heard a rich white guy just suddenly say, out of the blue, "You know, none of this (waving a martini-shaker at his swimming pool, fabulous house, trophy wife, M.B.A from Yale on the wall...) is due to my own intellectual, physical, or spiritual prowess. I was handed everything on a silver platter, plus myriad other favors, entitlements, and privileges that I'm not even aware of because I've always lived in this very insular, financially protected bubble that I don't remotely deserve..." Seriously, if anyone has actually heard a person of privilege admit to that- notify me. Post on this blog. Please.
Plus, just a wee bit negative on my part since I do tend to rail about trustfunders and how they drive me absolutely bonkers (perhaps because my beloved home state of Colorado is OVERRUN with them.)
Also, it's just a little bit narrow.
Why then, you ask, even bother? Welp because (here comes the pompous Anthropologist Pronoucement- brace yourselves!) I've come to believe that if this century is going to be anything, it's going to be the Century of Comin' to Jesus on a grand scale. Our time of self-delusion, inflated pride, unearned wealth and privileges is rapidly coming to an end. If for no other reason than it's simply unsustainable. And this is a good thing. (I'm speaking mainly to Americans, Canadians and Western Europeans here- the rest of all y'all have your own problems) Por ejemplo, Americans especially need to Come to Jesus about the fact that this country was founded on the genocide and theft of Native Americans and not God's Divine Plan for White People Who Must Be Naturally Superior. The ignominy of this founding was quickly followed by its twin sister, slavery, and centuries of brutal, oppressive racism that has seeped into every pore of our government and so-called "free" society and poisons it to this day. Denial of these basic facts only shoves those twin poisons deeper into our collective psychic wounds and makes them more difficult to heal.
Which brings me to my segue- so, the healing. Obviously these are huge issues, huge thingies, huge wounds that could take a person an entire lifetime to heal, and for a country, it's going to take generations. So, we-all-of-us, sisthren and brethren, need to start small. Really, all of us have things we need to Come to Jesus about. To make it easier, I've posted some of my CTJ's that originally appeared on my MySpace blog (and which got virtually no attention, as I have very few friends. Go figure.) as examples. Keep in mind, it doesn't have to be about YOU and your personal life for starters. If it is, my advice is to start REALLY small - as in, "Ok, I have to Come to Jesus about this hair scrunchy that I've been wearing every day for 6 months. The elastic is dead, the colors are faded, it's starting to smell, and it doesn't make my hair look good at all. Maybe it's time for a new style."
Or like, in a post of over a year ago, when I had to come to Cheezus about the fact that I made way too much Ro-tel nacho cheese dip for the Superbowl, which no one ate, but I kept it in the back of the fridge for months thinking "Someday! We will eat that! Can't let good Velveeta go to waste!" Sigh.
Definitions: Coming to Jesus, for those unfamiliar with the phrase, is about giving up your grand illusions/delusions about yourself or something/someone dear to you, facing facts, and in turn for this act of humility and self-awareness, receiving the sweet embrace of forgiveness in the arms of the "lord", or in my mind, the bosom of the Virgin Mary. If you're Catholic, or if you've read "Bless Me Ultima" by Rudolfo Anaya, you know Mary's a helluva lot more understanding and forgiving than her son. She also runs around in the costumes of other cultures pretty frequently (or vice-versa, really, most of them pre-date Mary)as Tonantzin, Kwan Yin, Hera, White Buffalo Calf Woman, on and on. She is the nurturing face of the Goddess, the mythical unconditionally-loving mother to all who will always hold a distraught child to her breast to comfort them, no matter what stupid accident they've just caused or crawled out of. (so why not call this blog "Come to Mary?" doesn't sound as good.)
In the Baptist American tradition, it's the term for when congregants literally crawl on their knees up to the pulpit, weeping and sometimes rending garments, asking the preacher but more importantly their co-religionists to forgive them for ______________. Usually, some version of "living a falsehood." For example, perhaps you are unemployed, and desperately broke, but for some reason are still holding out for that $100k a year job, rather than facing reality or "coming to Jesus" and getting some sort of temp job so that you can pay your bills and put food on the table.
Yes, it generally involves giving up on a pipe-dream, or fantasy, not ACTUAL, legitimate dreams of what you really want to do with your life. In other words, "Put down the Pipe! Dream!"
If you've ever "Come to Jesus" about anything, you know there's a profound sense of relief that washes over you when you finally do. Unlike a confessional, where you just feel more guilty and dirty afterwards, this has immediate rewards (again, appealing to the Americans in the group).
Maybe I should mention that I'm culturally but not spiritually a Christian, and I mean no disrespect or "ironic" snarking by invoking Jesus' name here- I'm invoking it because I think a lot of people can relate to it, Christian or no. So don't waste precious comment space getting all offended that I'm blaspheming your god or something, because I'm not. Jesus seemed like a really good guy from what I can tell, trouble is, his teachings are incredibly hard to follow in real life and most of his "followers" only pretend to follow them, to keep up appearances.
I have to moderate this for hate-speech etc., but other than that, go for it.
Plus, just a wee bit negative on my part since I do tend to rail about trustfunders and how they drive me absolutely bonkers (perhaps because my beloved home state of Colorado is OVERRUN with them.)
Also, it's just a little bit narrow.
Why then, you ask, even bother? Welp because (here comes the pompous Anthropologist Pronoucement- brace yourselves!) I've come to believe that if this century is going to be anything, it's going to be the Century of Comin' to Jesus on a grand scale. Our time of self-delusion, inflated pride, unearned wealth and privileges is rapidly coming to an end. If for no other reason than it's simply unsustainable. And this is a good thing. (I'm speaking mainly to Americans, Canadians and Western Europeans here- the rest of all y'all have your own problems) Por ejemplo, Americans especially need to Come to Jesus about the fact that this country was founded on the genocide and theft of Native Americans and not God's Divine Plan for White People Who Must Be Naturally Superior. The ignominy of this founding was quickly followed by its twin sister, slavery, and centuries of brutal, oppressive racism that has seeped into every pore of our government and so-called "free" society and poisons it to this day. Denial of these basic facts only shoves those twin poisons deeper into our collective psychic wounds and makes them more difficult to heal.
Which brings me to my segue- so, the healing. Obviously these are huge issues, huge thingies, huge wounds that could take a person an entire lifetime to heal, and for a country, it's going to take generations. So, we-all-of-us, sisthren and brethren, need to start small. Really, all of us have things we need to Come to Jesus about. To make it easier, I've posted some of my CTJ's that originally appeared on my MySpace blog (and which got virtually no attention, as I have very few friends. Go figure.) as examples. Keep in mind, it doesn't have to be about YOU and your personal life for starters. If it is, my advice is to start REALLY small - as in, "Ok, I have to Come to Jesus about this hair scrunchy that I've been wearing every day for 6 months. The elastic is dead, the colors are faded, it's starting to smell, and it doesn't make my hair look good at all. Maybe it's time for a new style."
Or like, in a post of over a year ago, when I had to come to Cheezus about the fact that I made way too much Ro-tel nacho cheese dip for the Superbowl, which no one ate, but I kept it in the back of the fridge for months thinking "Someday! We will eat that! Can't let good Velveeta go to waste!" Sigh.
Definitions: Coming to Jesus, for those unfamiliar with the phrase, is about giving up your grand illusions/delusions about yourself or something/someone dear to you, facing facts, and in turn for this act of humility and self-awareness, receiving the sweet embrace of forgiveness in the arms of the "lord", or in my mind, the bosom of the Virgin Mary. If you're Catholic, or if you've read "Bless Me Ultima" by Rudolfo Anaya, you know Mary's a helluva lot more understanding and forgiving than her son. She also runs around in the costumes of other cultures pretty frequently (or vice-versa, really, most of them pre-date Mary)as Tonantzin, Kwan Yin, Hera, White Buffalo Calf Woman, on and on. She is the nurturing face of the Goddess, the mythical unconditionally-loving mother to all who will always hold a distraught child to her breast to comfort them, no matter what stupid accident they've just caused or crawled out of. (so why not call this blog "Come to Mary?" doesn't sound as good.)
In the Baptist American tradition, it's the term for when congregants literally crawl on their knees up to the pulpit, weeping and sometimes rending garments, asking the preacher but more importantly their co-religionists to forgive them for ______________. Usually, some version of "living a falsehood." For example, perhaps you are unemployed, and desperately broke, but for some reason are still holding out for that $100k a year job, rather than facing reality or "coming to Jesus" and getting some sort of temp job so that you can pay your bills and put food on the table.
Yes, it generally involves giving up on a pipe-dream, or fantasy, not ACTUAL, legitimate dreams of what you really want to do with your life. In other words, "Put down the Pipe! Dream!"
If you've ever "Come to Jesus" about anything, you know there's a profound sense of relief that washes over you when you finally do. Unlike a confessional, where you just feel more guilty and dirty afterwards, this has immediate rewards (again, appealing to the Americans in the group).
Maybe I should mention that I'm culturally but not spiritually a Christian, and I mean no disrespect or "ironic" snarking by invoking Jesus' name here- I'm invoking it because I think a lot of people can relate to it, Christian or no. So don't waste precious comment space getting all offended that I'm blaspheming your god or something, because I'm not. Jesus seemed like a really good guy from what I can tell, trouble is, his teachings are incredibly hard to follow in real life and most of his "followers" only pretend to follow them, to keep up appearances.
I have to moderate this for hate-speech etc., but other than that, go for it.
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