Tag Archives: current-events

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The Monday Hodgepodge

As a result of nothing really worth an entire blog about, I offer mini points of discussion for the day. Between a discussion of news from the weekend and personal developments, there is a few points I’d like to make on each topic. So here is what there is to say.

First, I will start with the announcement of my first physical book and latest e-book release. My Mother’s Eulogy is now available in Kindle format or in hardcover form on Lulu.com. This has also caused me to create an author page on Facebook, which you can feel free to just click the like page: https://www.facebook.com/BrianneKLaRochelle . This is very exciting, as I feel this is the first big step in accomplishing my dreams. I have more left to do, with 2 plays I’m currently working on and laying out ideas for my next book. I’ll keep everyone informed of those.

And lastly, in the world of politics. On the Sunday shows, it was toyed around with how the law in Arizona was about freedom of religion not it being anti-homosexual. That opens it all up to skinheads declaring racism as their religion, so “whites only” here. Is it even really religious freedom if the only religion allowed to practice freely is Christianity? Just wondering where the spaghetti monster churches are or if the absence of a religion should be seen as an insult. I want to see more Pagan landmarks. And we can’t forget about the Satanists. Oh… and on the grounds of religious freedom, sacrifices should be 100% okay. Because we have freedom of religion in good ol’ ‘Merica.

This is all I’ve got for you. The weekend of news was as exciting as the Oscars were. So check out my author page link on the side and like me on Facebook. You’re probably just wasting time during your lunch break anyways. Or wasting your work day away. Either way works.

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No Morals, No Service

I don’t pretend I know anything  about being discriminated against. I am a straight white girl from suburbia. The most I’ve ever gotten picked on was for being pale, freckly, and dressing how I wanted to. That pales in comparison to actual discrimination. This doesn’t mean I can’t recognize blatant discrimination that seems to be unconstitutional. Now we’re facing a modern-day civil rights issue.

Instead of having separate facilities for whites and minorities, now we’re going to be watching separate facilities based on who you love. This might be an extreme vision of what might happen if this gets signed into law. (Also, as a side note: why does Arizona always end up passing these sorts of laws that get such media attention?) We’re envisioning something that might not even matter. Once this gets sent to the Supreme Court, it’s likely going to be overturned with the comparisons to the Civil Rights Act and just make a group of people too pissed off to even visit your state. All money is green… until it’s rainbow-colored? Wait, isn’t green a color on the rainbow?

What we are opening ourselves up to is a repeated history. If this is allowed to stay in place, what will stop racists to reopen “White Only” establishments? Then what about “Irish Need Not Apply” rules? How about separate Catholic, Mormon,  Muslim or Jewish facilities, because obviously we don’t want people of different faiths intermingling. This isn’t just an issue about whether or not you approve of homosexuality; it’s an issue if you think any breed of person can be discriminated. I don’t. And if you do, wait until you’re the one discriminated against and I hope you don’t complain because if it’s good enough for other people, it’s good enough for you.

This law is this can of worms waiting to revert us all back to the days before civil rights existed. We are giving a license to create second class citizens based on the way they were when they were born. Privilege will be about religion, sexual orientation, and race. If a so-called “gay establishment” opens up and sends me away because I’m straight, there would be an overwhelming amount of outrage. If you deny that fact, you’re lying to yourself. But somehow, allowing it to happen  the other way is acceptable because you call “religion”. Don’t use religion as an excuse for your hate. My religion tells me to love others. Hilariously, my religion is also the one these hate filled people call as their own. The real sin here is this discrimination, not that they are gay.

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The Art of Making Up Your Mind

I can’t seem to shake the theme of conflicting beliefs that people have. People stand around preaching tolerance, but only with people who agree with them. People make bold statements of absolution, unwavering to any reason or arguments that may help them consider that they might be wrong. It’s this same unwavering absolution that has created the mockery of government that exists in America today.
So let’s talk about marriage then. Marriage is a union between two people who are in love and want to spend forever (or until they can’t stand each other anymore) together. They would like to tell you that this is a religious union, blessed by God and so on. They’re lying to you. Marriage is really a legally binding contract between two people who either love each other enough to be married for a certain amount of time or until each party gets what they want out of the deal until which case they either die married or go to lawyers to undo the union. I usually express disdain for marriage, as part of it brings out the inner feminist in me but mostly because for such a right we have, they make sure to tell people who they can marry all the time. I accept this fact. I even admit frequently that I would’ve stayed forever engaged to my husband if it weren’t for the fact he had great insurance and we were paying double the insurance for each of us individually. But again, this shows the legally binding contract between two people.
Which brings me to the point. States are considering a law requiring couples to take classes about marriage before allowing them to get marriage licenses. Before, people were required to take blood tests to get married. There are people against this, on the argument that marriage is a right we all have and the government has no right in this realm. These same people also argue against gay marriage on the grounds of religious and moral beliefs. If the government has no say, how come you need them for a marriage license and to dissolve the marriage?
I’m okay with this. Too many people go into marriage and expect it to magically work without any effort. They assume a partnership is a partnership and everything will be okay. Marriage takes work, some more than others. I also think making people get a parenting license before procreation is a great idea because of how many terrible parents out there, so maybe I’m skewed. The reality is there is a high divorce rate and that needs to be addressed somehow. I’m not opposed to divorce. I’m not going to say that divorce ruins children’s lives or that children that grow up in single family homes are screwed for life, because I don’t believe that. The arguing of parents are more harmful than a divorce, in my opinion. One major reason reason for divorce, after money, is conflicting beliefs that couples don’t think matter until after the fact or children are in the picture. Maybe classes before marriage isn’t a bad idea.

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Learning about Boundaries

I remember in grade school how we had to learn about “personal space”. This was demonstrated to us by making us hold our arms in front of us, like we were zombies and walking to make sure that we didn’t touch the person in front of us. We had to hold out our hands when we sat down. A stiff punishment of a recess detention would be doled out if we crossed into someone else’s space. This naturally caused us to go into “I’m not touching you” mode. We did learn boundaries of staying where we belong and don’t belong. No freedoms were impeded on.

In Massachusetts, the Supreme Court is looking at whether this law that places protest free zones around the entrances to abortion clinics. Now as someone who sees these “buffer zone” markings often by my son’s specialist, I can say that it blocks off areas around the entrance to the parking lots into clinics that performs abortions so people can freely get in and out of these parking lots without being blocked by people with signs. It also makes it so people like me can get to the medical office building behind the clinic without having these people with signs harassing me. They have all this space outside of those spots to march and protest. And there is a lot of space.

I’m for your right to protest. You should be able to take a stand against whatever you want. This does not mean my right to protest takes priority over your right to seek medical treatment or anything legal you want to do to your body. News flash: the buildings with clinics in it also have other medical offices in there. Also another news flash, sometimes people go to the clinic for birth control or OB/GYN checks though I’m not sure the exact statistics because I believe that it’s none of my damn business why they are there. Final news flash: abortion is legal and if someone is going to do it, your graphic signs and religious rhetoric are not going to stop them any more than gun control prevents gang members from shooting up school buses.

I wonder how they would feel if people were just outside their private residences to protest. Obviously, not on their property but just at the end of their driveways in the public street. Or what if I went to a church and started a protest blocking their entrance into mass? Would they say “okay, it’s your right to protest wherever you want so have at it guys, we’ll work around you. God bless!” No, they would be pissed that I’m interfering in their business.

I wish I had a larger following. I would call for these sort of protest because I’m all for seeing social theory play out. I like watching hypocrisy try to rationalize itself. I’m interested to see the results of these actions and how the various media outlets report it. I think we should test this theory. See how that affects this law and how the people opposed to it react.

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Random Thoughts 2014

Now that the holidays are over, it’s officially time to get back to business. Today, I will focus on the first “Random Rants” post of the year. A new year is supposed to be about new beginnings but let’s face it, it just feels like another day. You can go to bed with good intentions for resolutions to wake up without even bothering to try. The fact is that any day you wake up is a second chance to make a change in your life.

Now, onto the rants of the year.

It’s POT TIME! Well, if you live in Colorado anyways. People opposed to this say it will encourage people to smoke pot. Seriously? Pot is easy enough to get, and if people want it they’ll get it. Legalizing pot is not going to make a swarm of people who wouldn’t normally smoke it automatically decide they love drugs. What it will do is increase tax money into the government instead of being pocketed by possibly dangerous gang members. What it will do is make sure someone with a dime bag won’t spend the same amount of time in jail as someone with 10 kilos of coke. You’re not encouraging pot smoking any more than legal booze encourages drunk driving. Bonus: Did I mention free money to the government to possibly go to the schools and improve our declining school systems?

Duck Dynasty, the family of bigots? This isn’t newsworthy or even particularly shocking. They are Southern, super conservative Christians that were raised that way. Are they bigoted?  Not my place or anyone else’s. If you’re a real Christian there’s only one person who can truly judge. It’s crazy and has gone on long enough. I’m actually tired of hearing about it on the news. And, for the record the argument of free speech was only intended to protect a civilian from the government not a civilian over another civilian. And if you’re really shocked by this, you must’ve really dropped your jaw when you found out Paula Deen, an old woman from the South, dropped the “n” bomb. Find something actually newsworthy like troops losing benefits so people can sit around and play the PS4 on hard-working Americans dime.

Puffing With Kids? States are considering laws that prevents parents from smoking in a car with a child on the premise of the second and third hand smoke are dangerous for children. People opposed this state the government is over stepping control and it crosses a line. People have liberties, right? Last I checked, you can’t drink and drive.  Should we allow that since anything else is an attack on basic rights of humans? Laws like this exist because people are inherently stupid and must not realize the idiotic things they do and how it affects others. They make laws like this because people lack common sense, just like there are laws against driving under influences or anything else that seems like you should just know better.  Think about how much time is taken off the road to find a cigarette and then lighting it. I bet that math equals sending a text while driving, and texting while driving is illegal. That must be an attack on civil liberties too. The fact is simple: you want lung cancer, or any other smoking related disease that is your personal choice. That isn’t your child’s personal choice to possibly get asthma or worse because you couldn’t last a 5 minute drive without lighting up. And standing next to a “smoke free zone” sign with a lit cigarette hanging from your lip makes you look stupid, just saying.

PS4, why?! I really just wondered why you bothered to release a game system and only like 4 other games to go with it and several months before more are released. This seems like poor planning. I just needed to get that off my chest.

I hope that if you believe in this New Year hoopla that you accomplish your resolutions and get your new beginning.  For everyone else, remember when writing your checks out that it is we 2014. It always takes me until May to remember.

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Always Taking the Path to Minimalism

Some people are okay with the easy way. Some people are okay with mediocrity, especially if it means they don’t have to do anything for it. I am not this type of person.  Do you know how hard it is to write a blog on your phone while chasing down a toddler who is apparently on a mission to destroy the Christmas tree? I’ll give you a hint: it’s infuriating.
There are many times I want to say “screw it”. I want to tell Tom to quit his job and we can live happily ever after in less than ideal conditions on the government dime because they seem to live better than the hardworking people who live according to each paycheck. They are fleeting thoughts though, because my first thought is my children and the lessons they would learn from that. And I remember why I don’t give up: because they deserve better and that is more important to me than anything else. So my husband works away and I make sure the paychecks stretch as far ad possible.
Working a minimum wage job, which it seems the only one I can get at the time being would eat up my entire paycheck for daycare. That is, unless the wage gets raised up to $15 an hour. I’d flip burgers for that in a heart beat. Do I think that’s way too high to raise it? Sure I do. But, I’ve considered a few things.
People like the easy way out, so a job of ease like that, would keep a person employed. And an employed person making more money is less likely to need government assistance. Secondly, some people take whatever jobs they can get, and they should not be forced to feel ashamed if a minimum wage job at McDonald’s is the best they can do for their families. In fact, they should be applauded for their hard work instead of shamed. More people should be like that. And lastly at that rate of money, it will no longer be more beneficial to live off the government than to be gainfully employed so maybe that will get people actually working, than being paid from hard-working lower middle class people’s paychecks to sit around and play Call of Duty Ghosts on that PS4 you bought that most people couldn’t afford on your nicer furniture than the second-hand ones they have to live with. Run on sentence rant, ended.
On the news, I heard Herman Cain say, essentially, “if you work hard, you’ll get raises anyways after 6 months”. In the real world, does that really happen though? In my experience it never happens that way. Maybe every few years you get an extra $50 a check… the real world is not the same place those cushy pundits that talk about the middle class lives. Nothing infuriates me more than someone in designer clothes wearing Louboutin shoes, telling me how I feel about something. They don’t know how I feel about anything, and they shouldn’t presume that they do and pretend to speak for us.
So, do I think minimum wage should be raised? Sure. Do I think $15 is too much? Maybe. I’m not an economist, but I would love to read the math and theory behind how $15 for minimum wage version the money being paid into government assistance and how much money is saved from the government, thus being saved by the tax payers. It might not even be cost-effective, I would just love to see the independently done math to make an educated decision either way. And don’t feel ashamed of your job, whatever it is. I commend you for your strive and other people should too.

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What is “News”?

In reading through the news for something that would inspire a post, I stopped. It started with a nice story of a child who died of cancer and received a full police funeral, usually only reserved for people who had served on the police force. It was a nice story, and I left it alone. There was nothing to say about that story other that very positive things that had already been said. Then I read over the “headlines” on the Google news feed, and I see this: “New York City”, “Detroit”, “Maui”. Okay, obvious news stories there.

Then I see “Chimpanzees”. Okay, I’m interested Google. I will read this for article. My husband loves watching shoes with chimpanzees and anything else monkey, so we’ll see what this says. “NY Lawsuit seeks ‘Personhood’ for Chimpanzee”. I lied, I won’t read that article, that is ridiculous. My dogs act like people sometimes and I would never consider them anything but dogs that eat their own poop and spend all day sleeping and licking themselves. At the end of the day, a chimpanzee is still an ugly hairy chimpanzee that throws poop. That headline was a waste of time.

But then, at the bottom of the list I see: “Kim Kardashian” and “Tom Daley”. I didn’t even bother reading about the Kardashian because I figure slowly people will stop caring and she will fade into an oblivion that is the tape she was in that started this insanity with her. The “Tom Daley” category sounded interesting, he’s an Olympic guy so what happened? Did he hurt himself? Did he also die in some freak accident related to what he’s most famous for? Ooooh, maybe he’s a new guy to see in those Subway commercials? You might have redeemed yourself, Google. I appreciate this. I read it with anticipation, this was going to be interested at least. Right? I’m on this. “Tom Daley is dating a man”. Officially disappointed in you, Google. You were better than this… weren’t you?

The point? What is “news”? Is a famous person coming out of the closet news? No, I don’t think so. It’s great for younger people who need someone to look up to that they can relate to so they know that it is okay to be out and proud of who they are. But this isn’t news. I think that all people are people, and I don’t care if they are gay or straight and it isn’t my business whether or not they are. And anything Kardashian related is also new. I get peed on too (Hazards of baby boys), but you don’t see me milking it for an obscene amount of money. Though, she has inspired me that maybe I should. Where the discussions of injustices happening? I care more about Government reform, the budget, why politicians are more concerned about party lines than the people that put them into office. These things should be in the news. When the Supreme Court listens to the Hobby Lobby case, I want full coverage on that. These are things I think are news. Maybe I am old fashioned, also every time I walk by Hobby Lobby I can’t bring myself to go in. A.C. Moore for life here… plus I don’t like the idea of a craft store that only wants to cater to one type of people. I want news. I want unbiased, old school journalism news where we don’t care that Michelle Obama wears clothes from Target. I don’t mind reading the fluff stuff, but I want some substance too. Just because I enjoy the mindless reading of Cosmopolitan, doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy my classic literature. But I would rather the substance than the mindless crap they try to pass off as actual news.

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The Definition of Insanity

Albert Einstein mentioned about insanity being defined as “doing the same thing over again and expecting different results”. With that statement, 90% of Americans are insane. We never learn. Ever. There are women that get smacked around or cheated on and decide “that’s the last time, he loves me”, and guess what? They’ll do it again because we repeat cycles until the cycle breaks. Right Chris Brown?  We don’t change something about ourselves, but complain about how you’re stuck in a rut. You’re only stuck because you don’t want to move out of your position. That makes it your problem, not mine. If you want a change, change it yourself. The world won’t change it for you.

I was watching some of the Congress “interview” of Secretary Sebelius. One person repeated the same question over and over again. “Why aren’t you on the exchange? If it’s good enough for the American people, why aren’t you on it?” While the point has some validity, Secretary Sebelius repeated that it was because she was on the Federal Employee Plan. Now if I had Federal Employee insurance, I wouldn’t bother with anything else even to prove a point. However, I’m not. Why did he bother wasting his time asking the same question for the whole 2 minutes he’s allotted instead of something constructive. Maybe he wasn’t wasting time, maybe he was proving a point that only true geniuses could understand: the healthcare law doesn’t appropriately make note of mental illness and insanity! I’m onto your game…

Sarcasm aside, the plan itself wasn’t a bad idea. But like most things, even the best ideals fail as a result of humanity being terrible.  The idea that people should be able to get insurance without being discriminated against as a result of pre-existing conditions, insurance should be more affordable for the average middle class person, and insurance companies should stop being glorified thieves. Then people get involved, and it all went to poop. Now, while the Democrats are responsible for putting forth a plan that seems to not be everything it promised, I will also play the “the Republicans are at fault as well” card. If the plan was as awful as they say it was, why not make a better one instead of just telling us that it’s bad. No, instead you spend tax payers money doing absolutely nothing but trying to repeal something that seems to be un-repealable instead of showing America that you can do better. Prove us American’s wrong and show us that you actually care about us, and not being in power over us. We put you there, and we can take you out of there.

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The Blabbering Man

I can safely say that I predict a fun-filled presidential election coming up. Hell, I can say with such confidence that the 2014 elections are going to be full of awesome. Not because we’re suddenly hitting a group of politicians that actually care about us, but we’re hitting a group of politicians that are only concerned about being president. I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking “but Brianne, they all want to be president. Why else would they go into politics?” Valid point, but some go in because they honestly think they can make a difference, but then money and power corrupt them and turn them into every other politician out there.

Case in point: Only a politician can go on for 21 hours rambling on. Good news, Sen. Cruz might have broken the “I’m going to talk my brains out forever because it’s not like senate gets anything done anyways” record. I’ll get back to you on that. Why did he go on? Some say because he made a promise to his constituents that he would end Obamacare and wanted to keep that promise. Sure, if that was the case why would he only start this crusade now and not the minute he was elected and sworn into office? My theory is that he’s more selfish than we’re giving him credit for. He wants the presidential spot in 2016 and thinks this is the way to do it. As much as people may or may not hate Obamacare, didn’t he learn anything from the 2012 election? We want laws that improve us, not someone to run on the sole focus of getting rid of a law.

Do you know who suffers in this case? Not the politicians. If the government shuts down, they still make their obscene overpaid wages. The average government worker is going to lose their jobs or wages or benefits. I think that if they want to shut down government, they should sacrifice their pay too. In fact, I think they should sacrifice their pay for the average person who would lose theirs as a result of their arrogance and lack of care. Only in the Utopian world in my head would this happen.

Instead of stopping a bill because you don’t like it and rambling on for hours about it, how about you decide to make how to make a difference in the world. You might have gotten elected on a platform to end a law, but that doesn’t mean that is your only job. You were voted in to make a difference. You were voted in because people were stupid enough to think that you were going to change the way things were going in Washington. Make that change and do something good for your constituents, not “do something good for your presidential run”.

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Keeping the Government out of Your Unmentionables?

I love commercials. I hate to admit this, but I do. Some commercials are funnier than the television shows we watch. I think that’s one of the reasons I love the Super Bowl so much: I get football, which I love, and hilariously awesome commercials. My oldest son is a big fan of commercials, and can often recite them. And he does recite them often. My toddler stops everything to watch commercials and Jeopardy! but doesn’t watch television otherwise. I think that they get it from me. Maybe it’s because commercials are so short and I have an admittedly short attention span.

Then I see this: They’re right. We shouldn’t let the government play doctor. If the Republicans tell us we don’t want Obamacare because they shouldn’t have the right to tell us about our medical care, why do they want to tell women that they can’t have the right to choose or have access to Plan B? Those are medical decisions, right? How can you make a decision that the government can’t have a say in our medical choices but tell women they can’t have a say? What’s the difference? I’m looking at this in a logical and rational manner. Who decides what is a medical choice that the people should be free to make or what should be illegal? Is it because of the moral issues at hand?

I’m confused. Not really, I’m fully aware of what the logically right answer is. The answer is our government, and rightfully so, views us all as brainwashable zombies that they can mold us however they want. The liberal media is just as guilty as the conservative media for inciting anger and fear into its mindless drone fanbase. I’m not a mindless zombie; I’m an overly opinionated person who borders opinionated and bitchy. The answer is really staring us in the face: the government on both sides wants us to follow blindly and get outraged at the time. The Republican party wants the government to be limited, but only in everything else but allowing everyone the right to be married and for women to choose what they do with their uterus. The government should be limited but only limited to things they believe are morally acceptable, whether that infringes on personal freedoms or not.

The Democrats are equally guilty in this fear mongering. “The Republicans want to take away welfare and kick poor people while they’re down”. “The Republicans are going to gun everyone down and deport anyone with dark skin”. I don’t want to be associated with either party, because both are batshit crazy and think that everyone in America is a twit. I’m not a twit. I know a lot of people that aren’t twits. In fact, I wish the government spent half as much time as they do bickering with each other like toddlers fighting over a toy to figure out how to think logically. When our government gets their head out of their butts and actually think about the things they say and do, I think we’ll be at least a little better off.

We’re guilty parties to this as well. People do follow without consideration of what’s going on in front of us. Why didn’t they bend a guy over a table while he received a prostate exam instead of a female getting examined? We should really think about the information we’re being fed and be careful to make up our own minds. It’s easier to follow blindly, but I don’t like the easy way out. I won’t be told what to think by anyone, and you shouldn’t either. And, I’m going to have nightmares next time I’m at my gynecologist after seeing that commercial.