Life & Living & Marching On

I'm pissed off and depressed and anxious and all sorts of other messy things. So much so that I have taken a couple of days away from writing. As in I have done NO writing in the past few days - and for me that's a lot like holding my breath until I turn purple.

There were the vermin in Paris last week, and the babbling cacophony that's followed ever since.

There have been declarations that I am "ignorant" because I do not take a moderate view toward vermin like those who promulgate and perpetrate such acts. Well, I've got news for those who say that: I have never declared myself to be a scholar on the subject. But I read and I assimilate the information I read and I form opinions and attitudes. And I have just as much right to express my view and opinion as anyone else. But there are some who disagree that I have that right. It appears, based on what was written and exchanged between me and the two in particular, unless I am in precise lockstep with their view of the world, I and others like me should just STFU.

Farther out on the tree limb are the people like the man in Virginia who's all over the news yesterday and today. A public hearing regarding construction of a new mosque and he's standing there accusing everyone who's a Muslim of being in league with the vermin of ISIS. Now there is ignorance. It is as stupid and blind and nasty as saying that all white people are card carrying KKK members, or all blacks are members of the Black Panthers or that all Asians run dry cleaning establishments or restaurants. It's ignorant, insulting and, as I said above, downright stupid.

However, it is based on fear so while it is decidedly wrong, there is at least a handle to grasp for understanding. It's a tiny little thing, a barely there protrusion of a handle, and once the heat of this moment passes I sincerely hope the individual who said such hateful things will see the error of his ways and recant. I also hope that the people to whom this idiot directed his remarks will take the high road, that they see his fear and lack of understanding for what it is: ignorance. As unpleasant as it is, at least ignorance of something can be overcome by education.

There is the wider worry of who is coming across our borders. Eight Syrian men were caught in Texas the other day. Five were caught in Honduras with stolen Greek passports on their way into the US. How many have been missed and why are they here? Are they simply seeking asylum or are they here to do harm? I don't know and neither does anyone else, except for the individuals themselves.

On top of all of this is the news that ISIS is actively, aggressively seeking chemical weapons technology. They've already used sarin against their "enemies" in Syria so it is not beyond the realm of imagination that they'll cheerfully use anything they can lay hands on to spread their terror. What if they do something using chemical agents in the Paris metro or in a place like Stade de France or some other place where many people congregate? It's a horrible thought because some of the things I've read about are seriously scary shit. Like agents that are so deadly that if you touch them with bare skin you die. Agents that cling to surfaces for hours or days or weeks and are just as effective weeks after "application" as they are in the first moments.

With all of this, is it any wonder that I'm depressed and anxious?

I don't want to live in an ugly world where going to a public place means I'm packing worry or fear in my bag along with whatever else I'm taking. I don't want to live in a world where I have to strip down and submit to being x-rayed in order to get onto an airplane. I don't want to live in a world where there are a few vermin negating the rest of civilization - and yet that is precisely where we are.

I don't fear that anything is going to happen to me or my family. We don't go to public places very often. We stay close to home and go about our normal lives. We don't travel. We don't do much of anything, really. So we're safe. Reasonably so, anyway.

Beyond that, when I drill down to the bottom line of my life and living, I'm a pragmatist. I know that no one survives life. At some point I will die. It is just a question of when and how. Truth is, I'm not ready yet, so I hope it doesn't happen anytime soon. I have too many plans, too many things to which I'm looking forward to doing to want it end anytime soon.

I have my bucket trip several years from now. Providing, of course, the vermin are controlled. Wiped out would be better, but that's too much to hope for so I'll settle for controlled.

Sooner, in the not too distant future (based on observation and assumption), I have other changes that will take place. My MIL will pass and I'll enter a new stage of life. I will become the "oldest generation" for our family and I have things in the works that are going to make that first a scary and then a hopeful and hopefully wonderful time. It is scary, though, looking to the future I've mapped out. Once I get there and get my sleeves rolled up, it'll be fine. It's just this preliminary time in which it looms overwhelmingly large. It'll shrink as I get closer. At least I hope so.

In the meantime, I'm going about my business and not losing sleep over that which I can't control, anyway. I hope you do, too.

Have a lovely day!

Best~
Philippa

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories

Fox News = Fair & Balanced? Uhhh, no.

Okay - I used to be a Fox News junkie. A year or so ago and before, it was my solid go-to for news and world events. Then things changed, as they do.

I had less time to watch, the commentators became more... whatever they already were.

Megan Kelly = drama queen
Bill O'Reilly = know-it-all blow hard (I live with one so I know 'em when I see 'em)
Brit Hume = RNC sycophant / disciple or whatever synonym you care to apply
Sean Hannity = well-intended, weak-kneed choir boy with a solid Catholic bent

Susan Estrich is impossible to listen to. Her voice makes nails on a blackboard sound downright melodic (I'm sorry - maybe it's my hearing, but that's how it sounds to me).

Anne Coulter - the personification of a shrill, well-informed BITCH (all caps - done deliberately). She cannot moderate her tone yet keep her opinions flowing in something that faintly resembles reasoned thinking. She must and does come across as much like a shrew or fishwife as she can manage. As a thinker, she is borderline brilliant. As a commentator, she is a complete shrew / harpy / fishwife - you pick your adjective, but I think you get the theme.

At this point, I'm right at my husband's side when it comes to Fox News. When my MIL wants to watch it, her favorite go-to for the talking heads and empty suits, I leave the room.

The debate the other night is the entire thing in a nutshell.

Chris Wallace, the self-appointed arbiter of what makes a good conservative (even though he's a party-line apparatchik of the first order), went after Donald Trump.

So did Megan Kelly. Snarky is the nicest thing I can find to say about her performance.

Bret Baier was the only one on that stage, or in the Fox News spin room, who showed even a modicum of 'fair and balanced' - Fox's much Trumped tag line.

Okay - they don't like Donald Trump. Personally, I don't either. He is another pumped-up blow hard - just like Bill O'Reilly with a major difference.

Trump is so self-evidently an egoist (selfish, self-centered, arrogant, etc.) that it doesn't make any difference. He's not an egoist who tries to hide his egoism. He's honest about it, embraces it.

His ego does not allow the man to prevaricate about his opinions. Love it or not, there's something to respect right there. He speaks his mind - says what he means, means what he says.  As he declared to Megan Kelly the other night when her panties were all twisted up because The Donald is mean to and an ass around women, 'if you don't like it, too bad because I don't care'. Good! Because neither do I.

I do not need another incompetent touchie-feelie moron sitting in the oval office. Ladies and gents, we need a MAN. Someone with the stones and guts to go toe-to-toe with those who wish to do us and our people harm.

How many crucial contracts or deals has Obama negotiated? One. Just one and he gave everything to the other side.

In exchange for handing Iran the keys to their own nuclear arsenal - which will, inevitably, be used against Europe and the United States, we got zero. 0.00000000000 = ZIP, zilch, zed, nada.

Our hostages? Still held hostage. Thanks Mr. President! Couldn't even bargain them out of Iranian jails.

Israel? I give them, ohhh, maybe two years. Why do you think Iran sent one of its senior political members to Russia this week? Could it be to negotiate for rocket technology so they can put one of their nuclear weapons on top of it to launch it in the direction of Israel? Mm?

Then, once Israel is turned to cinder, who do you suppose will be next?

Ever hear of Armageddon, the end of the world, end of everything foretold in the Bible?

Guess what! It's a real, honest to goodness place - smack dab in Israel. It's now called Meggido, but it's a real place (Google it if you don't believe me) and, if Iran launches a nuke at Israel, that might well be the place where World War III - the Annihilation of Civilization begins.

What do you think the result would have been if Donald Trump or one of his delegates was sitting across the table from the Iranians during those negotiations? Do you think that hard-nosed man would have walked away with nothing to show for the effort?

In our house we call John Kerry 'Herman Munster'. First, for the physical resemblance:

But also for the vacancy between the ears. Just Google: "kerry admits iran deal failure" and you will get a plethora of articles calling it a hoax and worse. And he was the chief negotiator for God's sake!

So Donald Trump couldn't do better? With all of his years of experience in negotiations he couldn't do any better than Kerry and Obama?

Give me a break.

Our hostages would be free and those voids called 'inspection requirements' would be filled. Do you realize that to inspect Iran's nuclear facilities, based on the deal cut by Obama & Co., we have to not only provide 24-hours prior notice - meaning Iran has 24-hours to clean things up and hide what they don't want the inspectors to find - we have to go through a series of other steps beforehand? That means the flag of Upcoming Inspection soars up the flagpole a week or more before the 24-hour notice period, so there's even more time.

Great job, Obie One! And here's what Israel children have to look forward to because of our knowledgeable leadership:

Well, just resurrect and export Bert the Turtle with his built-in air raid shelter.


O'Reilly says he's out to help 'the folks' but I don't buy it. He isn't able or willing to step out from behind the desk and speak his mind - without apology.

As Trump said the other night, America spends far too much time on 'political correctness'. As Ben Carson pointed out, because of 'political correctness' we spend far more time fighting non-existent race wars pumped up by segments on both sides, than we do trying to fix what's broke.

There has been a firestorm because The Donald wouldn't toe the Republican Party Line at the start of the debate.

The people on the stage were asked something like, 'No matter who gets nominated, will you pledge to support them (even if you think they're just as incompetent and weenie-like as the present incumbent of the oval office)?' Trump was the only one who refused to make such a pledge.

Why? Not because of what Fox News is trumpeting. It's probably because underneath all that bluff and bluster the man has at least a minor streak of ethics left. If he had made that promise and if Jeb Bush were to get the nomination - the third Bush in a row of lily livers - Trump would have publicly committed to support him.

After what Bush I and Bush II did to us - 'read my lips' and the still on-going devastation of printing money we don't have so we can spend money we don't really have so we can fix the recession - I don't think we need Bush III to seal the deal for the U.S.

Obama may be incompetent and dangerous to the point of maniacal, but he did not single-handedly get us into the economic mess we're still in. He made it worse, there's no question, but he was not the cause. We had twenty years of cause before he showed up.

Bush I's reneging on his 'read my lips' promise and other weak-kneed policies led us into Kuwait in the first Gulf war. Hussein thought we were weak, because that's what he saw in Bush. Bush's advisers shoved him in the right direction, thank God, but left to himself he would have wrung his hands, wet his pants and generally behaved like George McFly.

Clinton's policies led to the technology bubble in the NASDAQ bursting in 1998. That threw us into recession. Congress repealed Glass Steagall, which was instituted to solve the Great Depression and make sure financial speculation didn't reach the same levels at some future date. Clinton approved it.

Glass-Steagall was what kept us from economic devastation for nearly seventy years. Then Congress, in its infinite stupidity, repealed it. Seven years later the housing speculation bubble bursts and... here we all are, eight years later.

Wikipedia.org Glass-Steagall_Legislation

Then we got Obie One. Our sports loving, golf playing, multi-trillion dollar spending lazy-ass incompetent president.

Do I like Donald Trump? No. I don't, but for our next president I think we could do one hell of a lot worse.

Now, I suggest you do some reading and research - in more than one place and from more than one point of view. There's a lot here.

Read up on the Great Depression and what led to it - financial speculation, just like the tech bubble of the late 1990's and the housing bubble of the mid-2000's.

Read up on Glass-Steagall, what it meant, what it did and why it was effective.

Do a little research into the candidates on both sides.

Bernie Sanders talks like a kindly ol' socialist, but check his voting record. Look into him a bit. The left might not like the fact that his voting record is quite (very) pro-gun. He didn't support the Brady Act. He didn't support legislation that would allow the Sandy Hook families to sue the gun manufacturer (although why the manufacturer has any liability is beyond me).

For the liberal-socialist base, though, they'll adore him. He is another profligate tax-and-spender. He's sponsoring a bill, now, that opens voter registration up to everyone who gets a driver's license - American citizen or not, which means that any illegal from anywhere can influence our nation's government. Personally, I have a problem with that. Personally, I have a problem with the idea that suing a manufacturer because someone uses a product and causes harm to others is okay. But that's red meat for another post.

We all know Hilliary. Rose Law Firm, Vince Foster, lying, being charged with (and acquitted of) perjury (although I do believe the evidence was there, just ill-prepared and poorly presented). All the rest of it.  BTW - anyone seen her lately, doing the grocery shopping for her and Bill? How about at the cleaners, the gas station standing by the pump watching the gauge, or doing any of the other things those people whom she's so in touch with do on a daily basis?

Oh, and while you're checking things out - read up on Benghazi. Refresh your memory and then ask yourself: Would an ego-maniac like Donald Trump take such a thing lying down, or would his massive ego step in and force us to actually try to do something?

After all, the US military maintains rescue forces all around the world, specifically to save people caught in situations like Benghazi. Obama was too busy crapping his pants to send them - as they are trained to be sent - so instead of, perhaps, saving a few Americans, all were lost. Whatever happened to the credo: leave none behind? Hmm. Perhaps some more reading is in order.

Best~
Philippa

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories

Treading the Dark Side of the Moon

After yesterday’s post I’ve decided to keep going with this exercise. At the very worst, I’m at least writing – which is what is important to me. At best, I’m getting some reads and, perhaps, some interest.

It’s rather like walking on the dark side of the moon. There’s no light, no detail. I can’t see where I’m going or where I’ve been – it’s a blank because there’s no feedback. It's like being a bat in a soundproof chamber - I can't tell where the walls are, which is up and which is down. All of which is fine because I’ve worked through it and have decided it’s the exercise that matters more than affirmation.

One thing that I have concluded is what has led me to my current state of insecurity.  I’ve just stretched myself too thin. Between commute and work and family and the blog and Flash Fiction Friday (FFF) on Authonomy along with trying to squeeze time from my day to write and edit, it’s just too much. That’s part of my incipient ‘depression’ which led to my half-query / half-whine of yesterday.

I bowed myself out of the FFF this week. I’ll spend time with my coffee cup and computer tomorrow and read and vote, but for today, except for this, I’m taking the day off. I stayed in bed until 9:00 – which is unheard of for me. Even on weekends up usually up and at ‘em by 6:30 or 7:00 at the latest. I puttered around, got my coffee, had my breakfast and now it’s 10:30 and I’ve just started this. I’ll get this posted and then spend my day playing Farm Heroes Saga, Bubble Witch 2 and Papa Pear Saga. Brain on freeze and body on relax.

This afternoon we have a double-header between the Giants and Rockies (Giants won last night!), and there’s hockey.

In the Stanley Cup hockey playoffs we’re rooting for Chicago (Blackhawks) and New York (Rangers). Last night the Rangers won their game against Tampa Bay, tonight the Blackhawks go up against the Anaheim Ducks – a really strong team with a great offense. So, we’ll watch sports and I’ll just veg out.  At least we have sports! Otherwise we would be stuck watching the talking heads on Fox News (pronounced foksnooze – you know exactly what they’re going to say on any given subject, before they say it).

Tomorrow, I’ll take it easy, too. The plan is to wait for the internal well of imaginative thought to regenerate. I’m straining and am in something of a creative drought because I’ve over-done it.

In the meantime, I have a variety of things bubbling on the burner in the back of my head.

There are thoughts for changes for both ‘Matters of Friendship’ and for ‘Genevieve’s Piano’.

I also am debating changes to ‘Laurentina’s Lessons’ (formerly ‘Lothario & the New Girl’) but am resisting that because I am, generally, very happy with it.  It’s a good story as it stands. The changes seem to be changes for change’s sake and it’s my Muse who’s prodding. I just don’t know that they’re needed, so I’ll resist until things settle down and I’m back in my normal Happy Place which looks something like this:

So, now I'm going to have a lovely day and I hope you do, too!

Best~

Philippa

Follow me on Twitter:   https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories