Hmm
I feel like I would like to write a nice long entry tonight, but can’t think of what to write about. Similarly, I feel like shopping for something, but can’t think of what to buy. I guess I’m still feeling a little pent-up after Jo made me come home from Nordstrom early because she wanted to show off her red balloon to her sister.
Tonight as we were watching Seinfeld, Jo had a quizzical look on her face and said, “Mommy, are all people pink?”
What a lead-in for a good life lesson. I spent a careful 5 minutes talking to her about how people come in all different colors, from pink to reddish to yellowish to light brown to dark brown. “So you see, not everyone is pink, and lots of people come in other pretty colors too.”
“Like green! And purple!”
I guess you can’t win ’em all.
Speaking of diversity… Maybe I am just too damned sensitive. It’s not my battle to fight – is it? Why are people so damned awful about gays? I just can’t take listening to the crap about how ‘I don’t have anything against those homo-sexuals, you understand; I just don’t want to be in the same room with ’em and God help ’em if they get near my kids! But if they’re women, hey, send me a picture!’
Honestly. Why does anyone care? Do people really think that those there homo-sexuals are going to ass-rape their young son within 10 minutes if they’re in the same room together? Does anyone read the Leviticus passages in the context they were written? And why is it that it upsets me so much? Spending life on earth with some of the more ignorant, loud-mouthed sons of bitches who spout their arrogant and ignorant bullshit is starting to seem like a sentence.
Now I guess I’m Pushing the Gay Agenda(tm).
Here are agendas I’ll push:
The driver who cut you off is a dumb asshole, not a dumb woman driver, a dumb fag, a dumb coon, a dumb spick, a dumb wop, a dumb nip, or a dumb towelhead. That guy over there? He’s not an intelligent black man. He’s an intelligent man.
The part where Jesus says to love thy neighbor as thyself doesn’t have anything that says “unless” after it.
Assholes come in all shapes, colors, and creeds.
Other people have other ways of doing things.
If you think it’s not ok for foreigners to say bad things about the US while visiting here, it’s not ok for you to say bad things about their country while you visit it.
Not everyone who supports gun rights is a right-wing kook. Not everyone who supports abortion rights is a left-wing kook.
Categorize not, lest ye be categorized.
Just because you saw it on TV doesn’t make it true. Be a sport. Do your research, then develop an opinion about it.
A closed mind can’t learn anything.
Bitch about SUV drivers who drive dangerously if you like, but if I had a dime for every time someone in a tiny little car cuts my Suburban off so closely that our bumpers nearly kissed, I could retire.
I guess I had a post in me after all.
August 28th, 2003 at 1:37 pm
it’s cool for people who are *visiting* here to bitch about the country, i’m totally down with that.
my problem is when people who are LIVING here take the freedoms afforded them for granted. particularly those who are here illegally sucking up my tax dollars and refusing to learn the fucking language. my kids go to school with third-graders who fill out their own registration paperwork and birthday invitations and permission slips because their parents don’t speak any english. and they build churches where the sermons are conducted in entirely whatever their native language is, which furthers their *self-imposed* segregation.
i’m not suggesting racism doesn’t exist; that would be stupid. but particularly here in new york, every ethnic and religious group is so interested in getting their own piece of the pie and not sharing that it’s sometimes hard for the so-called “majority” to empathize.
it’s like feminism, which is supposed to represent EQUALITY of the sexes and often winds up touting female SUPERIORITY. a good idea on paper, to be sure, but…
August 29th, 2003 at 12:03 am
I swear, Michigan becomes more socially conservative by the day. She’s gonna be votin’ for Pat Buchanan within the decade! 😉
Anywho. My grandmother once said to her sister while my sister and I were playing in the kitchen: “I don’t mind them n******, but I’d never let one into my home.”
My mother was in the living room at the time, and she ran in and read them the riot act. They were suitably chastened, and they never said anything racist in front of us ever again.
That’s one of the few unqualified wonderful memories I have of my mother. My grandmother wasn’t a bad person, just …old. From a different time.
August 29th, 2003 at 3:09 am
my increasing social conservatism probably comes from the fact that i am older and have more responsibilities, and dammit, i pay a lot of money to have what i have. i even pay a lot of money for stuff i don’t have. for this reason, i have begun to consider myself “moderate”, because that’s a nice word for “wishy-washy”, which is what i am most of the time. i was quite distressed that when i got my new york license i had to register to vote as *either* a republican or a democrat (i picked republican after ten minutes of agonizing). the current struggle between the individual’s right to privacy and our right to not have our buildings blown up by planes because somebody got offended by racial profiling also gives me agita.
don’t push me over into buchanan territory though, lest i defenestrate you. 😛
August 29th, 2003 at 11:59 pm
Hmmm michigan, I see the families in my neighborhood who have moved here for the sake of their children; not even hoping for very much for themselves, but that their children will have a chance in life. They work 2 or 3 jobs, do all the work that no one else will do for such low pay, and I ask you, if you had just cleaned 3 houses and then worked as a nanny taking care of someone else’s kids, then you go home and cook for your kids, when the hell are you going to night school to learn english? And what native english speaker has the patience or respect to even try to talk with you without making you feel even more shy about it? There are people I know doing the crappiest jobs here and living in squalid conditions very frugally, then they save enough money to bring their entire family and buy a house, not because anyone handed them YOUR personal tax money on a plate, but because they worked and lived in conditions that I would have trouble tolerating. You really want to go pick pesticide coated strawberries in the fields with no toilets down by the coast for 50 cents a day? Or would you prefer to go to the nice shiny clean grocery store and pay 1.99 for your miraculously lovely and cheap strawberries?
Why don’t you imagine yourself desperately moving to China 10 years from now after the war that destroys the U.S. And then imagine your neighbors clucking their tongues that you are too ignorant to learn how to read Chinese. You are, say, 50 years old and have 3 kids, which is obviously too many kids, it’s really almost disgusting! and you can’t read or write or speak the language or get a good job. Maybe while you are cleaning toilets and being cheated by your landlord and harrassed by police you will comfort yourself that at least on sunday you will go to church and get to talk english for a while.
I can’t help but going off on this subject, I got an earful from my grandparents about the signs in the windows in their town “no italians or catholics”. They were all immigrants and grew up in non english speaking households. The kids went to school and learned english, the parents never got much chance and they couldn’t read even in italian.
I’m just saying, give immigrants a little respect.
Is it about melting pot and everyone assimliating? “our country?” Whose country? I bet the Dutch rolled their eyes when those Brits started building their stupid churches in New York. How about over here in Califa that was stolen from mexico in 1846. Whose country is it again?
August 30th, 2003 at 2:18 am
OMFG. This is what I get for reading my wife’s journal.
Just for the record: I have a grandmother that came here (legally, I may add. Not some sponging illegal idiot) that can’t speak English(speaks broken English), doesn’t have a driver’s license, and is fine with it. She didn’t see the “need to do it” because her husband could do all these things for her. You know what? It GRATES ALL OVER ME that she never learned English, and I have voiced and voiced it to the family. I guess I’m just insensitive.
My mother came over from Mexico when she was around 6 years old. She learned English. My dad came over from Germany when he was a young age too. He learned English as well (so did his mother). That is the way it SHOULD be. Learn the damn language. You know what ELSE sickens me? I hate the fact that when I call someone, and get an automated machine, I HAVE to choose my language. This is the United States of America. We speak English here. I shouldn’t have to “Press 1 for English” when I want to get something done. I shouldn’t have to do it on the phone, I shouldn’t have to do it at an ATM, or ANYWHERE ELSE for that matter. All the immigrants should have to do these things. Immigrants should have the drive and determination to learn the language of the country in which they choose to reside. Am I talking about a National Language? You’re damn skippy.
And don’t even get me STARTED on “How about over here in Califa that was stolen from mexico in 1846. Whose country is it again?”. You know what? This is the United States. Stolen? Nah. That’s like saying we stole the country from the Indians (remember, there ARE no “Native Americans”. The Indians are immigrants too. They came across the Bering Straight during the last Ice Age.) No. The Indians are a conquered people. Mexico? Sorry, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Oregon, Idaho, Nebraska, Oklahoma and thank God Texas are part of the United States now. Aztlan IS NO MORE. There’s no getting them back.
Let me be perfectly clear that when speaking of “immigrants,” we’re talking about the people that go thru the long and tiring process of LEGALLY coming to the United States to live. Illegals? Adios muchacho, ciao, auf wiedersehn, and adieu. Go back and try again legally. Do not pass “GO.” Do not collect $200 dollars. Hop the next train, raft, ship, car or plane, and GET OUT.
August 30th, 2003 at 2:30 am
“my increasing social conservatism probably comes from the fact that i am older and have more responsibilities, and dammit, i pay a lot of money to have what i have.”
What, and i’m getting younger, live a carefree existence, and pay next to nothing? 😛
Nah, it’s gotta be something else.
So long as you don’t suddenly start trying to convert me to heterosexuality, m, I’ll hold off on thinking you’re in the Buchanan Brigades. Though I think you’d look great in a Bay ‘do.
August 30th, 2003 at 2:36 am
I’ve said this to others, j: sometimes, when reading what others — especially people I know and like — say that is so utterly different from the way I believe the world works, I marvel that a universe can contain such totally different views.
I think you’ll really enjoy this article by Randy Barnett. Obviously, I disagree with just about every single thing he says, but he makes an important point. One that I have to keep reminding myself over and over, these days: as utterly weird and frankly disturbing as I think your views are, I know that if you knew half of what I believed, you’d think the exact same thing.
August 30th, 2003 at 2:47 am
I could only get halfway through that article. I think both parties suck moose wang, frankly. I resent being categorized as right by liberals and left by conservatives. In my perfect world, people would get to do what they want to do as long as they don’t hurt others, and if they fucked up they would have to take responsibility for it. Because you know what? I think that 99% of the ills in this world come from passing the buck. Own up and act like a grownup! The worst part is that both parties think that they need to save me from myself. I don’t need a nursemaid!
August 30th, 2003 at 9:25 am
badger: you pose a lot of interesting questions, but i am sorry, it can be done, because i’ve seen it with my own eyes. i would never say it’s an easy situation to be an immigrant, but clearly the grass is greener here for many. i admire their courage, and i can even understand really old people who came here during our less tolerant past not speaking english – but the younger crowd definitely should. surely this is the only country in the world where a person can be born here and not know the language (don’t scoff, it happens).
let me stress also that learning english is TO THEIR BENEFIT. it ensures that when they sign a contract, they understand what they are agreeing to. it means that if their kids get into trouble with the school or the law, they will understand why. it means that if they require medical treatment for a life-threatening illness, they will fully understand what is happening to them. speaking only a foreign language is a surefire way to alienate yourself and your kids from your peers – i am simply not comfortable sending my kids to a birthday party where if they get hurt, an eight-year-old is going to call me on the phone to tell me what happened, because the adults CAN’T; therefore i will probably not let them go.
my husband’s mother spoke zero english when she moved here in her early twenties. she didn’t know anyone at all, and she learned english from soap operas and newspapers (between working two and three minimum wage jobs to help support her five children, btw). she only recently became a citizen finally after many years of living here as a *legal* alien, and she says that the written test is given in multiple languages; she also said that the verbal english exam is a joke.
kenn: i wouldn’t presume to assign my personal reasons for a shift in viewpoints to you; however, did you ever know me to be a bleeding heart liberal? i have always been sort of moderate about everything, i just never wanted to talk about it to anyone. and i never had an opinion on things like immigration because i never had direct and frequent exposure to other cultures like i do now. so i guess the point is i haven’t actually changed all that much. 😛
j: i agree with everything you said. wholeheartedly.
d: sorry for eating up your comments space 🙂
August 30th, 2003 at 11:15 am
m: Nope! I never did. But then, you were never outspoken about it before.
I’m anti-being thrown out of windows, though. That I can say for a fact.
August 30th, 2003 at 11:25 am
d: It’s funny; I’ve always thought of myself as a moderate liberal. That is, until about …I don’t know, two years ago? When I suddenly became a very partisan Democrat. I’m one of very few people I know that actually votes almost entirely on straight ticket any more.
And yet… I’m anti-“fair trade”, and very pro-“free trade,” even though as a programmer that’s a pretty risky position to take right now. I think the 2nd Amendment is too strong to even question whether guns can be successfully regulated — it renders the question moot. I don’t think it’s the responsibility of the federal government to provide a job for everyone (though I think that its goal should be to ensure that the opportunity is there for anyone who wants a job to find one); I think we’d be stupid to pull out of Iraq now; etc, etc.
So I guess I’m saying that even as a partisan Democrat, I can’t believe everything our platform says. Which is one truly annoying thing about the two party system engrained in our political process; nobody who embodies my view who actually tried to break out and form their own party would ever have a chance.
I guess that until the Republican party gets away from calling gay rights “special rights,” I’ll always have to be a Democrat. It’s my very own personal litmus test. But I support people like Arnold Schwarzenegger who still believe that the Republican party can still be a “big tent”, not just one where they hope you’ll vote for them while still doing everything they say. 😉
August 30th, 2003 at 11:26 am
possibly my very favorite scene from braveheart, btw, is the one where the asshole prince’s boyfriend is defenestrated by the asshole king. not because he’s gay, or even because he’s an asshole, but because i like to yell, “defenestrate him!” just before it happens.
i am as you all know a big fan of ten-cent words which mean stupid things like that – who’s the neo-maxi-zoom-dweebie now? (that would be me, in all likelihood.)
August 30th, 2003 at 11:29 am
speaking of “big tents”, how about the package on governor-mr-universe-arnie?
i’m done now, because d. will probably kill us both for spamming her email with comment notifications! 😉
August 30th, 2003 at 12:06 pm
People have been making fun of his penis size on some blogs I read. I think that’s totally unfair. He wasn’t even erect!
I bet D’s actually happy to be getting comments. I wouldn’t bet on that, though…
August 31st, 2003 at 3:18 am
You know, I have a forum on this site set up somewhere… 😉
Kwenneth is a-right! I likeum commentum. Commentum much, many commenty comment people.
Kenn is smart man not to bet on anything I may think or do. But is he yet smart enough not to go nil with the K and Q of spades? Inquiring minds want to know, Grasshoppah (which reminds me, 2004 is the mud’s 10th birthday and players want a con, let’s all go and have senseless fun and play many spades!)
September 2nd, 2003 at 7:43 am
Bizarro-Kenn smart enough to whomp ass in spades now. Bizarro-Kenn go double-blind-nil all time! Bizarro-Kenn bet all money all time.
Con sound good.