Tag Archives: Politics

by

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.

by

A Rant That Will Probably Offend

Edit: This is the infamous post. I’ve decided, with inspiration and encouragement from a friend I dedicate this to, to go against my instinct of trying to not to upset masses of people and post this after all. My friend is the main reason I am posting this because I see her struggles and it reaffirms my belief in this post. She gets screwed by programs meant to help people in need because so many take advantage of them. So, I stand by this as much as I did 2 weeks ago when I first wrote it. She deserves someone to speak out for her.
Yet, I oddly don’t care.  Maybe it’s not odd that I don’t care.  This is why I’m a terrible person. Over the weekend I saw a “ecard” type meme that said “complaining about EBT being down while on their iPhone 5”. I laughed because stereotypes amuse me and I’m a firm believer that stereotypes exist for a reason.
I thought about this for a bit. I always point out before I rant about this that I’m not opposed to people that work their butts off and fall short getting help from the government. While thinking about it, I get upset. I get irate. If you can afford tattoos, Air Jordans, cigarettes and videogames, you can afford to buy yourself food and diapers. If you can afford all that solely on the government time, I think it’s shameful and you’re stealing money from people in actual need. If you don’t feel like working at McDonald’s or another honest job to earn your way and better yourself, I don’t feel I should have to pay you. I’m absolutely sickened by this and I’m equally sickened by people who think everyone getting help is leeching off the system. There are people working as many hours as they can and attending school that are getting slapped in the face by people who just want to watch television while ignoring their meal tickets, I mean children. There are hardworking people out there in need and there are a lot of people that should be ashamed of themselves for taking money out of the mouths of the truly needy.
I’ve posted this same sentiment a lot. I hear news people calling everyone on these assistances lazy slobs. They’re focusing on the people taking advantage of a system of good intentions, failing to acknowledge that the best intentions usually fall victims to the ill will. While you’re collecting free money to watch television or play videogames, think for a minute about the soup kitchens or homeless shelters that could benefit. These are services that help the truly needy and are severely underfunded. Think about that mom working as many hours as she can, or that student that doesn’t sleep because they spend every second at work or at school. Think about our veterans, the ones that fought for your right to sit at home doing nothing, who need medical care or who has families that need help while their loved ones are overseas continue to protect us. Those are people in need. Need isn’t because “I don’t feel like it”. In life, sometimes you have to buck up and do things you don’t feel like because that’s what adults do.

by

Did The Government Shut Down?

With this government shut down, I can honestly say in my daily life I can’t tell anything ever happened. The new keeps telling me how awful or how nonexistent the effects are to the average American. Realistically, I think that the shut down will cost more to start-up after the stalemate between partisan egos end. If they end. I lied; this does have an effect on my daily life. My headache has gotten worse, as has my feelings of apathy towards those in office. The new organizations can’t decide how or if this even matters. As I said in my last post, one of the things that we have noticed is that we didn’t notice departments of government shut down which makes me wonder if they were even necessary to begin with.

Now I keep hearing about how death benefits are being denied to our soldiers. That’s abhorrent. Loathsome. Disgraceful. But while our politicians are feigning outrage over this, how much money is going into their own personal care that could easily be given to these soldier’s families? How much does that gym cost? For the record, it doesn’t look like half of them even use it. So how much does it cost for the congressional gym not to be used, or to have their hair perfectly styled and their shoes sparkly shined? Don’t act like Obama is a villain over this from your high horse, while you’re enjoying benefits at the cost of tax payers while people are suffering. News flash: you’re all whiny entitled brats that think American’s are stupid enough to think one party is at fault here. Okay, I’ll give you that a great majority of America is too stupid to realize that you’re all against us. I’m onto your treachery.

Then there is the debt ceiling. One side has reached out to another, “let’s compromise”. Compromise is for adults, and last I check all you elected people are acting more like children than my own children. I have a prediction. This is how the “compromise talks” will go: “Get rid of Obamacare”. “No”. “I mean it, it’s gone or else”. “I dare you”. Then the shut down happens. Oh.. shoot, we were talking about the debt ceiling, weren’t we? You all need to grow up. We elected you to do a job, and you all suck at it. If we sucked at our jobs, we wouldn’t get paid and we would get fired. This needs to apply to our elected officials too. I can fix this political debate. Congress should get paid minimum wage, should get to follow every law they pass without exception, they should have to go through with reviews from their bosses (ie: constituents.), and they should have to pay for their grooming and gym themselves like the average American has to. And if we don’t like them, we should be able to fire them on the spot instead of waiting for them to buy their elections. Maybe it’s time we show those in power that the American citizens are their bosses and they need to answer to us.

by

I’m Back!

Which is more than I can say about our government. (Cue “Rimshot”) I wish I could say I was off on some exotic vacation or caught up in the Red Sox playoff fever or wallowing over the downfall of my beloved Patriots. I wish I could even say that I had some super important thing I needed to do rather than write this blog. However, it’s none of the above. The “mild” illness that picked off my boys one by one and left them ill for a couple of days hit him. And when it came my way, it must’ve multiplied by each person it hit before me. At first, I decided “you boys are wusses, I’ve got this” and when I kicked it in two days time I discovered it was a trick my immune system played on me. My cold left me wanting to sleep in the bathroom so I had less to walk to make it there. Well played, body, but I did proceed to lose 5 lbs without working out due to the “sickness” diet. But now I’m back and in fighting shape.

Well except for that now that I’m no longer sick with an illness attacking my immune system, I’m not being attacked by a virus I can’t seem to shake called, and pardon my language, “bullshit”. That’s right, I said it. I’m conflicted. I want to be upset with the government, not because they’re shutdown but because of what they shut down. Sure, we’ve discovered that there are some people who are unnecessary in the grand scheme of keeping up the government. But why is it that we’re paying millions of dollars for certain vanities for the politicians to enjoy when there are people suffering. We can’t find money to pay out benefits to soldiers or help WIC or Housing programs for people in need but they can find money to pay for the private barber shops and such for our politicians? They need haircuts, polished shoes and clean suits, but babies don’t need formula and families don’t need help to bury a soldier that died so they can have those “free” haircuts. Who decides what’s really necessary? I’m not sure what’s worse though: that people are suffering and don’t even know it or that no one can tell us how we’re really suffering?

You guys want to be babies, do it on your own time. The smart people are blaming both sides for this cluster of disaster. The Republicans seem to only want to postpone Obamacare, which on the surface doesn’t seem unreasonable until we discover that they will continue to use that as a bargaining chip every year until they can get rid of it and they think we’re too stupid to know that. The Democrats seem to only want to not give up anything, which works because people are only reporting that the Republican’s are at fault here. If America was truly smart, we would fire everyone in office and start from scratch. Not because I think that the people we elect in their place will be any better, but because it will show them that we’re America and we will decide not some snot nosed entitled politician with their own political aspirations that they care more about than the people who elect them. If we don’t re-elect any of them, we will send a message that we’re in charge, not the highest bidder.

by

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”.

by

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.

by

My Thoughts of the Week

I wish I could say this post is going to be extra awesome since I missed Wednesday’s post as a result of… well you try getting work done with a toddler climbing over and out of everything while shredding every piece of paper he comes into contact with while screaming with laughter because he knows he’s doing something wrong. The moral of the story: toddler plus working at home equals nothing good can come of it. The lesson is that now I will have to regain a love of coffee after 2 years of sparingly drinking it so I can accomplish writing, parenting, and homemaker duties. What’s sleep? That’s going to be me soon. Again. This isn’t about me. Well, I suppose it is since it is about my thoughts of things this week. So, with that I can get on with my thoughts of things this week.

  1. I’ve been working out a lot lately, trying to get back into my pre-baby shape. Well, my pre-baby pre-baby shape, since I did gain a few pounds before I got pregnant. I opted for a girl power-esque station. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I definitely was thinking that I’d get some P!nk, some Katy Perry, some Adele, some Kelly Clarkson. I definitely didn’t consider Rihanna would be on that list of “girl power”. When I think girl power, I think of someone like P!nk that just tells everyone “well, this is me and if you don’t like it too damn bad”. When I think girl power, I think “Stronger” from Kelly Clarkson. I even think of Christina Aguilera or the Spice Girls. I can’t say I’ve ever considered Rihanna, though I will give the station credit for not subjecting me to Miley Cyrus. I don’t think either of those really represent women empowerment. Miley Cyrus acts like a 2-year-old that is desperate for attention and gets it. And Rihanna… I’m sorry to say but a woman who gets beat up by a man and precedes to go back to him not once, but twice or thrice is not someone who promotes women empowerment. That makes me think weakness, not strength. I know it’s Pandora and I know that it’s a music station and not a social issues station, but I really just needed to get that off my chest.
  2. Michigan is trying to pass a food stamps bill that requires people to work or do community service to receive benefits. It also denies unemployment benefits to people who refuse a drug test, which I’m noting because I don’t want people to think I only read half of it though this has nothing to do with what I’m about to celebrate. That is absolutely perfect and I agree with. If your argument is that you can’t get work so you don’t work, this makes it so people aren’t getting free money anymore. You don’t want to work, fine but you’re going to do something that is responsible and giving back to their community. I’m surprised this isn’t everywhere, because I’m 100% for this and it doesn’t make sense why you wouldn’t be. I can’t get free money so I can sit around playing videogames all day, why should anyone else? Too many people get too much for free. No, I’m not against programs made to help people. I’m against programs made to help people going to people who think that it’s a free ride, not a tool to help people in actual need. And for people who think there aren’t any jobs for them, I’m certain there’s a lot of programs that are there to help communities that need volunteers. Everyone wins, except those who think the government is there to support them. It seems the federal government might follow suit, and I would support it.
  3. I keep seeing that Ben Affleck commercial about hunger in America. I’m glad an actor is trying to raise awareness of this problem. However, I don’t think he should say “they go to school with our children”, because I’m fairly certain that his children do not go to school with people who suffer from poverty or hunger. So don’t say “our” children. “The country’s children”, yes, that would be acceptable. If celebrities are that concerned with children’s hunger, more of them should donate time and money to food shelters and pantries that need the help and supplies to feed these children while you’re busy making commercials about them. I appreciate the awareness being raised, but I think they should more collectively put their money where their mouths are.

Those are my thoughts for the week. Have a great weekend!

by

All Aboard the Gravy Train

I’m back from my summer vacation, and ready to go. The sun agrees with my hair, giving me nice natural red highlights and reinvigorating my thoughts to get back into things.

Today, I predicted a Republican president will be elected in 2016. I’m on the fence as to whether Senate will fall that way in 2014, but honestly I could see that as a very real scenario. I’m not sure if this prospect scares me or if I’m ok with it in the long run. I suppose that depends on the particular Republican or Republicans that get voted in. But I definitely see it occurring.

With a Republican, the budget might get back on track. Why? One reason is they’ll end this gravy train people are riding on. With outrage growing on all the conservative media about how much welfare fraud that exists, any reasonable person that acknowledges the problem won’t sit back and allow it. Fox News, for instance, should change its slogan from “Fair and Balanced” to “A Hand-up, Not a Hand Out” because they ram that catchphrase down your throat. And you know what? They’re right.

It’s not entirely the fault of the people who take advantage of this system that was put into place to allow people to get help when they work hard and still fall short. The loopholes that exist so people can take advantage of said system because work is “too hard” are to blame and make those people who need the help feel like they are being attacked because they need it, if they’re lucky enough to get the help as is with money being given to the “loopholes” and not the “help outs”. It’s terrible when I wait for a hospital bill that’s probably going to hit me hard, and my first thought is “my husband should quit his job, because we’d be better off that way”. And the real sin of it all? That statement is absolutely true. It’s estimated that in America, 40 states get more than minimum wage in money. In Massachusetts, it’s estimated that a person on welfare makes the equivalent of $14.66 an hour. (In Hawaii, they do much better. They get around $17.55 an hour.)  What’s the incentive to do something with your life if you make nearly double minimum wage to sit around and do nothing for it? I know some people who work hard and get help because going to school and working full-time doesn’t always pay the bills, especially if you only make $8 an hour. This isn’t to take away something that people need, this is to make a realization that something needs to change before everyone decides getting a job isn’t worth it.

That is why a Republican will win. They already care more about business than actual people, so cracking down on broken systems mean nothing to them but cutting the fat like laying off people so they can keep their pockets lined with profits. If that lined pocket is America and is going back into Social Security and Medicare or some other program that there’s a need for,  I can’t say I have too much of a problem with that. The easiest way to do that is to not necessarily raise taxes, just the number of people paying them. And to do that, they need to make getting a job and working hard more profitable to the people than not working.

This scenario isn’t all a peachy one though, as for a group that touts such anger in our civil liberties being stolen from us, they are willing to take the ones they want to take away from us too as we can see most recently in Texas. We can choose guns to kill people with, but abortion is bad because it kills. Pro-life only applies to a fetus, but death penalty for all because we can pick and choose whether we believe only God can decide matters of life and death. People should get married unless you’re gay, in which case there’s a closet waiting for you. Those are the costs people are going to be willing to pay to see real change in the financial direction of America. I don’t understand why we have to make that choice? Can’t we get real reform and the ability to keep people’s private lives private and their own business?

People say this was how Obama “bought” the election,  but I don’t buy it. If people don’t want to interfere their busy days of video games and television to work, do you really think they’re going to remember or even care to go out and vote? He won because people were terrified of losing rights to choose in their private lives and I’m certain that’s absolutely true. I bet we would have lost our private rights while listening to those poor NRA guys complaining about their precious arsenal. Complain about it with an internal ultrasound and see how you feel about your rights. If the Republicans want to win, they have to decide to leave the matters of the bedroom and women’s bodies out of the discussion and stick to the real reform they tell us they want to make. They can fix the budget without trying to reverse Roe vs. Wade or ban marriage equality. Unless they do that, I don’t see how they can win in the future.

by

This Week’s Collective Musings.

When all else fails on a day when I can’t think of anything else to post about, I’m glad I can fall back on random thoughts from the week.  So here we are.

  • Anthony Weiner reminds me of Beavis from “Beavis and Butt-head”. I know this is an insult to my beloved 90’s cartoon character but I couldn’t help it. I keep expecting him to come out with his shirt over his head shrieking “Cornholio!” Seriously, look at him, especially from the side. The resemblance is uncanny. Except he gets more from the ladies than Beavis did. But Beavis is far cooler. Beavis for Mayor! Also he’s a politician, not a priest. Have we not learned anything from Clinton? Being a philandering jackass doesn’t mean he’s a terrible politician.
  • Tomorrow is my husband’s birthday.  I considered what to get him, but I decided I already do his laundry, cook for him, and gave him 2 sons so he shouldn’t be greedy.  I kid.  I’ll probably make him his favorite “Reese’s” cake. Maybe, we’ll see how tired I am. If not, I’ll pretend it’s not his birthday. He’s forgetful he might not even remember anyways.
  • Ariel Castro should get shiv’ed in prison for it because as happy as I am those women won’t have to sit through a trial, he is a rabid dog that needs to be put down in the most gruesome manner possible. I don’t think he’ll last long in prison anyways, so he should’ve just taken the death penalty. I have a feeling his roommates might not appreciate the type of person he is

Now, let’s try to post this again with it being the complete post. (Sorry about the mishap earlier.) Have a great weekend and Happy Birthday to the best husband and father in the world. I’ll make sure the baby saves a nice load for you.

 

 

by

The Battle of “Shoulds”

I should be taking a nap. That’s the story of the past few days. The baby, still feeling a bit under the weather from the surgery and might be for a few more weeks, hasn’t been sleeping well. I missed Friday’s post for no other reason than “I should be taking a nap”, so I did. Today I realized I wanted to, but I really couldn’t let myself out of my own sense of obligation. The downside of working for money from home is you really sometimes can’t fight the temptation to just sleep instead of doing the work. Most days I fight it, and today I won.

With all this news over the George Zimmerman trial, I can’t help but to think that I should be writing a post about my thoughts on the matter. Since focusing my Hubpage on parenting, the blog is left to fend for itself. Usually I try to write about current events, but sometimes I can’t help but to rant about whatever I feel like ranting about on a given day. I keep fighting this battle of “shoulds”. Like, I should do some dishes and laundry while the baby is sleeping. But I chose the readers instead. Also, I choo chooo choo choose you, George Zimmerman.

One thing that bothers me is that when talking about the trial, you only hear George Zimmerman referred to as “Zimmerman” while Trayvon Martin is referred to by his first and last name. I don’t like uneven-ness. I don’t like the double standard, hell even Ted Bundy gets both his names uttered when being spoken about. And I would rather hang out with George Zimmerman than I would Ted Bundy. That’s a minor pet peeve in the whole scenario. Another thing I would like to point out, at the risk of getting readers mad at me, is that I don’t think that George Zimmerman is a racist. Do I think he’s guilty of trying to play a hero and chased after a guy he profiled as a criminal because of what he looked like? Absolutely. If I were walking down the street wearing a hoodie, I can safely say that I wouldn’t have been pursued as a criminal since my translucently pale skin would glow in the dark, giving away the fact I’m a white girl in a hoodie and we’re innocent and never do anything wrong. This isn’t about racism in America, I would even dare to say that this isn’t even about racial profiling in America. This is about a moron that wanted to be in the newspapers as the hero of the day for solving the slew of petty crime in his neighborhood. Well, at least he got his wish of being in the newspapers.

The issue at hand, unfortunately, isn’t really about someone who looks white killing an African-American child. I say really because it is a tragedy and it should be made to light that a kid died. But let’s blame the real culprit here: the law itself. This law needs to be changed, because who’s the next person that is going to get killed and have someone go “well I was just defending myself, he looked dangerous”? It’s similar to the gun debate: it’s not the guns that kill people, it’s the crazy people who are allowed to carry them that do. This law gives people a blank check to do this and walk away with their hands being clean. Next thing you know, Aaron Hernandez is going to say that “Odin Lloyd was going to kill me so I killed him in Florida and used a private jet to get the body up here. According to Stand Your Ground laws, this is perfectly acceptable!” People should be outraged that this guy got a blank check to kill someone. Maybe he should have stayed in his car. Maybe he should have followed him in his car while waiting for the police to properly handle the situation. Maybe Trayvon Martin shouldn’t have fought George Zimmerman. Maybe we should think for a moment what would happen if Trayvon Martin had killed George Zimmerman and gotten away with it because of this law. Maybe we should think about the outrage that would come out of that: “A black thug killed innocent neighborhood watchman who was trying to protect his community”. Maybe we should consider these points. This… this is the Battle of the “shoulds”.