And now for something completely different

from Rosie

I don’t usually get political on here (mostly because there’s not a lot of “that’s what she said” in it) but you’ll forgive me for going there a bit today. I need to talk about some stuff.

1) Most important, when is medicinal marijuana gonna make its way to New Hampshire?

The rest aren’t jokes.

2) When I first heard the Pat Robertson quote regarding the earthquake in Haiti being a result of a pact the Haitians made with the devil, I honestly couldn’t understand why it was newsworthy. His comments didn’t feel judgmental to me (he even wished the Haitians well) they were just words of lunacy. The guy believes in pretend---it’s too ridiculous to even give a moment’s thought and laughable that we have. Who cares what the guy who believes in unicorns thinks? And then Dan told me that “a lot of people listen to him.” Less laughable. How could…why would…I don’t get…but why…It really is too nuts for me to even begin to understand.

Some other comments from this obviously peace-espousing, spiritual man (originally posted here:

"I would warn Orlando that you're right in the way of some serious hurricanes, and I don't think I'd be waving those flags in God's face if I were you, This is not a message of hate -- this is a message of redemption. But a condition like this will bring about the destruction of your nation. It'll bring about terrorist bombs; it'll bring earthquakes, tornadoes, and possibly a meteor." –Pat Robertson, on” Gay Days” at Disney World

"The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians." –Pat Robertson

"I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God, you just rejected him from your city. And don't wonder why he hasn't helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I'm not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that's the case, don't ask for his help because he might not be there." --Pat Robertson, after the city of Dover, Pennsylvania voted to boot the current school board, which instituted an intelligent design policy that led to a federal trial

This one’s my favorite:

"I know this is painful for the ladies to hear, but if you get married, you have accepted the headship of a man, your husband. Christ is the head of the household and the husband is the head of the wife, and that's the way it is, period." –Pat Robertson

I just love the word headship. It sounds like worship meets blowjobs--- I’ll bet all those closeted evangelical preachers made it up (and that Dan will want to convert).

3) The Rush Limbaugh comments about how this tragedy is good for Obama is everything I hate about politics (and why I rarely write or even talk about it). While I understand that this is his job, it just seems that something like this---a natural disaster, the death of over 50,000 people, a massive tragedy of which the only culpability falls on science and earth---could be free of angles and politics (for at least a week) and replaced with good ol’-fashioned humanity.

This type of thinking frightens me. When we’re so polarized that an earthquake (or broken levees) are immediately seized upon as issues of politics and not people---we’re in real trouble. There is nothing to interpret; it is tragic but it is simple. (Again, at least for the first week---then I understand the people on both sides of the aisle have to get back to work polarizing us some more…I don’t think most of us are as far away from each other as they’d have us think.)

4) While I understand the benefits and necessity of cell phones, I often hate them. I don’t want to always be reachable and I am greatly frustrated by the whole new breed of rudeness it has born (and in which I have participated). That said, the fact that people can make donations through such simple means as texting, delights me. I once had a conversation with a friend who has worked at non-profit public need-based organizations almost as long as I’ve known her and just got her Master’s degree in social work. (She’s the most socially conscious and generous person I know and she’s also an atheist---take that, Pat Robertson!) She told me how people are often uncomfortable donating money versus things like canned goods and clothing, but that money is often what is needed. If making donations to every cause was as easy as shooting a text versus even a phone call, I wonder what the effect would be. (Donate $5 to Wyclef Jean’s Yele Earthquake Fund by texting the word “Yele” to 501501 or $10 to the American Red Cross by texting the word “Haiti” to 90999.)

5) If I had a bigger kitchen and a large-screen TV, I would invite you all over for this.

6) Last week I was working around the house when Dan read me a headline off the computer about some senator saying the word “Negro” and we both were like, what the fuck, who says “Negro” and how out of touch are the people running this country? I wrongly assumed (and, yes, got a lesson in assumptions and stereotyping) that it was a Republican senator. Still, my thoughts at the time were that I didn’t think he should have to resign. Politicians have committed much more heinous and egregious acts than that, with a vote versus a word even, and this idiot is the person that state elected. When I heard that it was Democrat Harry Reid and that Republicans were calling for his resignation, saying that if Reid was a Republican, the Democrats would want his head, I had to agree with this pointing out of the double standard. I think if Reid was a Republican he would have had to resign and I still assert that wouldn’t have been right. But the hand-rubbing and licking of chops that occurs on both sides over things like this---finger-pointing opportunities versus issues of substance---is exactly what makes politics so gross.

(I don’t completely disagree with the substance of what Reid said about how President Obama was electable in America because he is a “light-skinned" African-American "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one," which is exactly why a word like ‘Negro’ and other racially insensitive language is so offensive; because racism still exists and these factors probably did help get him elected. Here’s an interesting article on the subject.)

7) I hate that Obama sent 30,000 more human beings to risk their lives in Afghanistan. I was able to enjoy this holiday season with my family and 30,000 young men and women were not. 30,000 people. 30,000 souls. More than 30,000 families affected. I voted for Obama because I thought he would put an end to the frivolous risking of young lives that we’ve seen happen in the years since 9/11 and am disheartened beyond measure that this is not the case.

8) I’m not sure that I really want to open the political door on here but this is the stuff that’s been spinning around in my brain and thus, what needed to be Spewed.