Tag Archives: politics

May2

Paradox

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Paradox

Last night, Joey and I foolishly stayed up until 10:45 so that we could finish up the episode of Law and Order we had been watching.  We were zonked and tired and just about to drag ourselves off to bed when Joey checked Facebook one last time before killing the power on the computer for the night.  I was, by this time, off brushing my teeth, and when he stage whispered “JENNA, COME HERE” I immediately freaked out.  Because why else would he say that except, maybe, Analie had died or something????

So I’m running toward the that part of the house pretty much terrified, and I was shocked to find Joey sitting at the computer and not in Analie’s room.

Joey was glued to the television screen (also known as our computer monitor) and I snapped WHAT IS WRONG??  Because my maternal brain was still pretty sure something had happened to my daughter and here Joey was, watching TV??

“They killed Osama bin Laden,” Joey said, not glancing up at me.

It literally took me ten or twenty seconds to process that the reason Joey had summoned me was NOT because my baby was dead, but because Osama bin Laden was.  What a paradox.

We settled in on the couch to watch the coverage until el Presidente came and addressed the nation then, finally, we went to bed.  I laid there for a few minutes, trying to fall asleep but not having much success.  I kept thinking about how somewhere, bin Laden’s mother was mourning the loss of her baby.  Even though he had turned into a nasty terrorism mastermind who took many other mother’s babies from them, he was still someone’s child.  And he also had children (quite a few of them, according to Wikipedia when I looked this morning) and they were grieving too.

“Do you think bin Laden was a jerky, horrible person to everyone when he wasn’t planning mass murder attacks,” I asked Joey.

Joey paused for a moment, then he said no, he didn’t think he probably was.  He probably had to be a charismatic kind of guy to have so many devoted followers.  A wrong guy.  A deceived guy.  But probably a charismatic one, just the same.

Isn’t life strange like that?  WE know that we are right and justified in our actions.  bin Laden and his people thought the exact same thing, and they are surely grieving for him just as much as we would be if one of our top leaders was killed in an attack from what we considered to be an enemy nation.  Being an adult is way more complicated than I thought it was when I was a child.  Right is right and wrong is wrong, but the people on the other side are still people who were made in the image of God; they still bleed red when they die.

I think it’s easier to celebrate the death of a terrorist than to think of him as a man with family who was a sinner.

Just like me.

(Well, maybe a little bit different.)

bin Laden was no more in need of Grace than I am.

And, on the most basic, human level, he is a man who died without knowing Christ.

It seems strange to celebrate that.

Mar1

It was a gloomy Monday

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It was a gloomy Monday

So first of all it was hard to get up this morning because I knew I had to go to the doctor, and whenever I go to the doctor they inevitably suck my blood.  And while I did get a lot better at that last year, I still don’t look forward to it with giddy anticipation.  But not exactly easy to jump out of bed, if you know what I mean.

(Plus it was Monday.)

Second of all, I actually DID my hair (which I have been trying to do more lately) and then discovered it was raining outside.  That always makes my hair frizzy anyway, but what can a girl do.  Besides not do her hair.  And it was too late for that.

Third of all, tomorrow is the Texas Gubernatorial (why don’t they just call it Governor?) Primary.  I decided who I’m voting for.  It really wasn’t too tricksy, especially after listening to the debates.  What, you mean you didn’t listen to the debates?  I’ll grant you they weren’t exactly highly entertaining, but they weren’t SO bad.

I won’t get all political on here and say who I’m voting for, I’ll just say who I’m NOT voting for: Farouk Shami.  I’m sure he’s a nice guy and everything, but he was completely strange in the debate.  (Even Joey said so, and Joey barely cares about discussing politics.)  So I’ll be interested to find out who wins both Primaries.

Do you think they’d let me vote for one of each?  Because I could.

Tonight for dinner, we’re having a ridiculously good meal.  Stuffed chicken breasts, thrice baked potatoes (yes, thrice), fruit salad, and delicious broccoli.  And the best part is all I have to do tonight is make the delicious broccoli, because I’ve already prepped everything tomorrow afternoon.

I’m just waiting for it to finish baking.

I’m starving.

That’s why I’m rambling and this blog post makes, like, zero sense.

So maybe I should just quit while I’m totally not ahead anymore.

kthxbai, Internets

Apr24

Nukular Bombs

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Nukular Bombs

The Brother is an enginerd.

He works on fance-pantsy stuff at a company that shall henceforth remain nameless so I don’t get bombed for compromising national security.

Anyways, The Brother’s group is designing some new thingy just in case we should come under a nukular attack (I know, I know, it’s not spelled that way).  The President will come up to this big fancy board THAT BROTHER IS MAKING, which I like to imagine has lots of flashing lights and sirens and scrolling news headlines, and he will walk up to the big red button in the middle.  The President will press that button and then KASHOOOOOOOOOK!  Blastoff go our nukular warheads and then I guess they decimate whoever was trying to bomb us.

So last night I called The Brother and asked him how his project’s coming, and how soon it will be until Barack Obama will push his buttons.  (You know, for the nukular blastoff.)

Then I dissolved into giggles because HAHAHAHA!  Barack Obama pushes Brother’s buttons!

I couldn’t contain myself.

I’m not sure Brother thought it was as amazing as I did.

Jan20

Inauguration Day Poll

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Inauguration Day Poll

So – did you watch it?  Did you love it, did you hate it, were you indifferent?

No shame in admitting it, I got all teary-eyed.  (About five times.)  I thought it was a beautiful ceremony (wasn’t the Capitol lookin’ amazing?!) and chock-full of electric patriotism.  Love it, love it, love it.

I missed the poem, though, which bummed me out.  Hopefully it’s online somewhere so I can read it!

Anyway, it’s a big day for America.  I’m proud to be part of it, even if my part only involved sitting in Texas getting misty-eyed while watching a webcast of millions of people freezing their ears off.

Jan20

Politics ADD, plus other random goodies

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Politics ADD, plus other random goodies

1. Today’s Inaguration Day.

I have the wibbly-jibbly exciteables, not sure why.  I like monumentous occasions, and today’s event sure fits that bill for me.  So I listened to NPR coverage this morning on the way in and very nearly cried at the different commentators re-tellings of how cold it was, how people were starting to get a little grouchy, or how cell companies were trucking in cell towers to handle the call load — basically for no reason at all.

Oy.

I’m all set up to have myself a peek at the Inaguration, thanks to the interwebs, and I’m hoping I don’t start crying or something.  That would be weird.

2. My friend told me something very interesting indeed this morning.

Something I am very amused by.  She said “Did you know that your personality is shaped more by your siblings than your parents?”  (Thanks, Mom and Dad.)  According to this book she read, sibs usually have opposite personalities with the next sibling below them.

In my circumstance, it would be that The Brother is exactly the opposite of me, he and Sister would be opposites, and Sister and The Kid would also be opposites.  (This may explain how The Kid and I are mostly the same except he’s a boy and I’m a girl.)

I think this is particularly true.

For instance, when that plane landed in the Hudson last week, I was all flipping out and real twitchy about air travel in general, and when I spoke to The Brother about it, he said “Yeah, yeah, I knew you were probably being all weird.  But I wish I had been on that plane so I could have been in a plane crash and survived.  That pilot is awesome.”

Polar oppposites, people.

Oh, he also likes things like math and computer code and getting tense during family pictures.  I don’t like any of those.

Seems to me this book is accurate.  (Although The Brother and Sister don’t seem like opposites so much, but I’m sure the two of them will be able to assure me that they are.)

3.  I watched a really stupid movie last night.

Sister, you do not want to borrow Lorna Doone.  It was so bad it made me want to poke my eye out.  Joey wanted to quit watching it, but we finished because we’d started it.  Let’s just say it was melodramatic to a fault.  The bride got shot at her wedding by the evil man she had been betrothed to before she fell in love with the main guy (forget his name) and then the main guy ran out of his wedding (after Lorna had been shot) and fought with the bad guy in a creek, and somehow the bad guy managed to drown in a bog.

(I KNOW.)

And then somehow Lorna survived the gunshot wound and they lived happily ever after.

Usually the BBC doesn’t let me down, but they sure did in this case.  I do not recommend Lorna Doone.

Nov1

CANDY VOTE

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CANDY VOTE

I saw this awesome clip on CNN this morning before boarding my plane.  I was all worked up about the fact that I had to fly and I almost cried when I saw this cute kid who dressed up as a candy voting booth for Halloween.  I can’t explain myself sometimes.

Go to CandyVote.com to check it out.

I wish I had all the candy that this kid now has.

Oct30

VOTING DAY!

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VOTING DAY!

Well, it is for me anyway.  Joey and I are going to go vote early in about ten minutes.

I heart politics!!

I think they’re fascinating, they make me think (hard), and it’s a very interesting way to study group think and media glutting.  As an illustration, but by no means an endorsement of one candidate over another, how many people have you heard people being interviewed say that John McCain’s policies are the same as Bush’s  policies in 2000?  If I’ve heard an interview like that once, I’ve heard it a dozen times.  But when you think about it, can you even remember Bush’s policies from 2000?  I didn’t think so; I don’t either.  I believe we can all say “Thank you, Media, for putting words in our mouths” for that one.

Joey and I have gone around and around trying to figure out who to vote for.  We started out with one candidate, then we switched, then we switched back, etc.  I can’t even remember how many times we flip-flopped, but we make those Washington Insiders (see?  Media influence!) look like they never change their minds.

I even had a hard time sleeping last night trying to decide.

But I’ve made up my mind (I think) and I’m going to go fill in my little bubble sheet like a good American citizen.

I figured this is as good a time as any for a straw poll – who are you voting for?  (Don’t worry, these polls completely anonymous.  There’s no way for me to tell who selects which option!)

Oct23

Attack Ads

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Attack Ads

Since we don’t have a TV, Joey and I haven’t been subjected to the litany of political attack ads like the rest of you.  This morning as I was driving NPR replayed part of one that had been running in Kentucky, and since I had no visual images to put behind the ad, I was struck by how creepy the guy’s voice was.

He sounded like a chain smoking, half-baked, axe-murderer.

I choose to not vote for the guy voicing the attack ad because he sounds like evil personified–who cares about the guy he’s attacking!

Come on; you get a guy with a creepy, jibblie voice to read your attack ad, and anyone will sound really horrible and like the scum of the earth.  OK, let’s do an experiment.  You recall the most recent attack ad voice that you have heard and then read the following using that voice.  (In your head, of course.)

Jenna Woestman.  She recently got a hole in her favorite pair of jeans.  HOW IRRESPONSIBLE.  Not only is she irresponsible, but Jenna wastes [government] money.  Did she mend those jeans?  No.  Jenna Woestman threw them away.  Can we allow afford for someone who makes personal decisions like to be in public office?  I think not.

Sep2

Tuesday Morning

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Tuesday Morning

When my alarm went off at 6:00 this morning I was pulled out of a bad dream, and somehow both of my arms were asleep…not my favorite way to wake up.

I refused to get out of bed while I couldn’t feel my arms.  Absolutely refused.

So I tried to turn off my alarm with one of my sleeping arms.  You just try doing that, fine motor control is next to impossible.  I managed to slap the snooze button without swiping anything off the dresser and spent the next ten minutes trying to regain feeling in my arms.

Not easy.

It took the entire ten minutes before my arms woke up.  By that time, the rest of me was awake too.  I was still stumbling around and trying to make the bed when Joey came in from the kitchen where he’d been studying Hebrew.

“You hit the snooze?” He asked.

“I hit the snooze.  I was having a bad dream and my arms were asleep when I woke up, so I refused to get up.  It took ten minutes to be able to feel them again without pins and needles.”

I can’t really remember what my bad dream was about, but I sort of think it was about politics.  I listened to way too much radio yesterday.