And for the new blog....

come see me at:

http://www.joyousjournaling.blogspot.com/

My last bitch session

I have decided that I will no longer post under this blog. I am retiring from bitching. I will explain a little farther down but first, I just want to comment on the impending inaugural ceremonies.

I was recently reading a friend's blog and she was talking about the huge to do that is happening in Washington and she expressed that she gets it is a historical time, but she felt it was a bit over the top given the economy. I can understand that but what got me thinking is the concept of "getting" the historical value. Frankly, I am not certain I fully "get" it and mind you I am STILL moved to tears discussing the election. My point is that I don't know if I can fully understand it because I am not a Black American. I have never felt judged based solely upon the color of my skin. I have never known what it was like to be discriminated against because I wasn't white. My ancestors never had to sit in the back of the bus or be concerned that the Klan may come knocking on the door. When my parents told me that I could be anything I wanted to be in this World, I never doubted them. Racial profiling has never been an issue for me. I have never experienced the kind of hatred bred by racial intolerance. I have been witness to it, but I was never the focus of it. So no, I don't think I truly understand entirely the magnitude of this historic time. It is like trying to explain the bond between a mother and her child to someone who doesn't have children. Intellectually they may understand, but they will never know the feeling; Or, Like trying to explain honey. I could give you all the chemical components, tell you the color, even say it is sweet but, until you taste the honey, you will not know honey.

Having stated the above, I realize that racial intolerance will not go away because we have elected Barack Obama. Ignorance will persist in the hearts of those unwilling to let it go. However, I do have much more hope that in my lifetime we can achieve a greater understanding and acceptance of one another. He, Obama, will not solve it, we must. He is the effect not the cause. It is the hope that sprang forth within huge numbers of people, regardless of race, that did something. WE voted. WE exercised our right as Americans and selected the person we felt was the right choice. WE made this historic choice and the generations before us that believed in the idea of racial equality. One day in the not too distant future, I will see a female take the Presidential oath of office. On that day, I will get it and I will be able to more fully understand the historic significance of January 20, 2009.

Now comes the explanation of why this is my last post. I have come to understand that what I give my focus to strengthens and grows. SO, I have decided I will no longer give my energy to bitching, rather I intend to turn my focus to the joy that is present in my life everyday. That is not to say I won't get frustrated and angry at times, but I will not stay in it and I will not spread it around.
I will start a new blog and post a link here in case any reader want to check it out. Peace and Love!

No bitchin today!

What can I say, I am so happy! President Barak Obama! Damn that sounds good!

I am humbled by the sheer enormity of this historic election. I am so proud of this Nation and so very grateful to have been part of this movement of hope. NO doubt there are those who are disappointed by the outcome, but I am hopeful that President Obama will change their minds. There is so much work to be done, there always is, but for this moment, on what remains of this most historic election day, I just want to bask in the glow of hope and the promise of change for our future.

From One Pissed Off Voter

I oppose the proposed bailout plan because we are supposed to be a free
market economy. That means if they make poor business decisions, they
take the consequences. If I don't pay my bills, my utilities get turned
off, or the bank takes my house. It is the same thing. Let the private
sector step up and invest in new was of funding. Let the visionaries
figure new financing tools. If you all don't know what went wrong,
throwing money at it won't fix the problem and if you do know what went
wrong you should have seen it coming. That is your job. Experts have
been warning FOR YEARS about some of this fallout. Why did you wait so
long? Too busy debating whether or not to change the name of french fries
to freedom fries? Too busy focusing on a war we should have never started
in the first place? All this game playing and now after suffering years
of financial problems you want the taxpayer, yet again to clean up your
messes. It is irresponsible and immoral. Get it together and stand up to
this President and his Administration of ignorance, greed and shame. I
know it isn't easy, but someone has to look out for the best interest of
the PEOPLE. Remember us? We are the ones who grant you your jobs and
were are very upset. I do not trust you, any of you, to take care of this
problem. All of you are either seeking unprecedented powers, worried
about your image in the press, trying to pander to your rich friends who
got us into this mess or are so myopic there is no way you could see any
other alternative than to increase the national debt to unbelievable
levels. I appeal to your sense of duty to THE PEOPLE. DO NOT give this
President and his henchmen the reigns again. The last two times we
allowed him to make decisions this sweeping we lived to regret it. Help
me to believe in our system of governance again. Help me to believe that
my voice counts for something. I will not forget and I do vote.

Sincerely,

Beth Medina

This letter went to the President, Secretary Paulson
Representative Issa, Senator Boxer, Senator Feinstein

Bailout-Schmailout

For the last several days my ears have been ringing and my head swimming with all the talk of financial crisis. I don't mean to minimize, because I certainly see the magnitude of the problem, however, I am what you would call a nay-sayer. Someone has seriously been asleep at the wheel. While there is more than enough blame to go around, I am willing to accept my part. I leave it to K, all the financial "stuff", and take very little action unless requested of me. While I don't think we live outside our means, I could definitely be a little less impulsive in the shopping arena, I could also do a better job of budgeting and getting educated about our investments. For that I am heartily sorry and determined to change.

My mea culpa having been fulfilled, I am ready tear my hair out over the cluster-fuck that is Washington. As a collective group, those folks have the vision of a tick. A big FAT tick sucking the life out of the general public. Why, oh why, do we never seem to be ahead of the crisis? Why, oh why, does no one see the Reapper around the bend? Isn't that their effing job? I mean they spent weeks debating the value of changing the name of "french fries" to "freedon fries", yet they couldn't see that $$ was being too easily given. Even I, and I am NO financial genius, have been saying for years, that anyone with a pulse, not necessarily brain activity, but a pulse, could get a home loan. I also know that if the amounts in column A "incoming cash" and column B "outgoing cash to debt" don't match up you can't afford it. DUH!!!! Pretty simple math, not FUZZY at all. But alas, we have been focused on a war we should have never started, fighting over destroying more of our pristine environment rather than funding visionaries and trying to get records out of an Administration that has been more secretive than any in recent history. Good stuff! Meanwhile, the greed mongers were taking HUGE risks and bailing out of the plane before it crashed in their golden parachutes. The deregulation so beloved by the Republicans (and some Dems, to be fair) has come back to bite us in the ass. And what is their response, those deregulationists? We need more regulation. We need a bailout plan and it needs to happen yesterday. You guys, the taxpayers, get to foot the bill. My ass! In the real world if you fuck up on the job, there are repercussions. If I don't pay my mortgage, the bank takes my house. I say, take their penthouses, take their Mercedes, take their summer house in the Hamptons, take their job. Let the free market, which they so love, play out as it will. I know this also means that there will be really tough times ahead for all of us. There will be fall out. But damnit we are all culpable for living in the fantasy. The fantasy that "greed is good". Well Mr. Gecko, how ya feeling now, DICKHEAD!

What I refuse to do is give them anymore of my power. I refuse to let them scare me so much that I totally hand over the reigns. If there is going to be some government intervention it should be well thought out and detailed. NOT the three page vagueness that Paulson is peddling. I find it interesting that the guy who wants to get all the power was just 6 years ago a power broker at Goldman Sachs, if he couldn't see this coming he is either blind, stupid, or was too busy getting rich. Nevertheless, why should I believe him now? You know who I trust? I trust my very wise, highly educated, extremely fair husband. He is against this bailout too. So for those of you who know us, K the Pragmatic, is NOT in favor of a bailout. So, it isn't just me being full of piss and vinegar. I just happen to have a big mouth.

BTW, here is a link to an article I really like @ the bailout plan:

Why Paulson is Wrong.


HAPPY READING!!!

A Neighborhood of CRACKHEADS!

AKA, where I live. I suppose it is truly me who is unhinged because I actually believe in common courtesy AND we actually read the HOA docs before we signed our savings away on our home. Some of you, dear readers, have heard my complaints about my hood on several occasions. So, it should come as no surprise that I would eventually post something on this blog. Since it is my bitch session and my therapist is on vacation until after next week, I better get it off my chest, lest I start driving my car into some of my neighbors' living rooms laughing hysterically and screaming wild epithets.

When we first looked at our home in September of 2005, we arrived on a Saturday morning. I thought to myself, "I am not so sure I want to live in a gated community". The liberal in me thought it very bourgeois to have to buzz people in through security gates and have super secret codes for entry. I loved the layout of the house and the neighborhood seems quiet and calm. We looked at the house again a few weeks later and things still appeared relatively normal. We put in an offer, Karl negotiated the heck out of it and we moved in the day after Thanksgiving 2005.

Since then, the bubble of peaceful, quiet, well-kept and serene has burst! We now have to deal with dogs that bark incessantly, jackasses who think the street is their own personal used car lot, parents who allow their children to run amok and draw pictures of male genitalia on the tot play structure walls and a majority of folks who never bothered to read the Rules and Regs of our fair community. I was stupid enough to accept a position on the Board, which has only served to make me privy to even more idiocy. Now, I know I should just breath. "Relax, relate, release" as Whitley would say (A Different World, HELLO!). But damn, it gets irritating. Who puts their dog out at 4 am when they know the dog barks at the wind? Who takes their radio to the pool and blasts their music as if everyone around, but them, is deaf? What kind of idiot sits in the hot tub next to a sign that says "No smoking" and lites up? My neighbors, that's who. I HATE STUPID, INCONSIDERATE, SELFISH FUCK WADS!!!!

Please, feel free to commiserate. Tell me how right I am and what a-holes I live around. Tell me I am a victim of socially inept mouth-breathers. Just let me have my pity party. I will eventually snap out of it and realize I am becoming the scary old lady who yells at people from behind her curtained windows and owns 15 cats, all of whom eat off her dinner plate, before its too late.

Lisa Sylvester is a Ding Dong!

Who is Lisa Sylvester, you are asking? She is one of the talking heads on CNN otherwise known as a newscaster. I turned on CNN during what was supposed to be a discussion about how the 2 candidates running for President are going to solve the latest financial crisis on Wall Street. LS was slamming Obama's spokesperson saying that Obama refuses to give any specifics. The spokesperson then said he disagreed with her and began to outline a 6 point detailed plan that Obama outlined in MARCH. As he is explaining the plan, she totally shuts him down and says, "sorry, we are out of time". What an idiot! Don't ask the effing question or in this case make the accusation, unless you want the answer. Typical! God forbid we actually allow the people to hear a complete answer to a question. You wanted detail, Ding Dong, he was trying to give detail. Since we clearly can't rely on CNN to give it to us, here is an article that will point you in the direction of Obama's plan.

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/stumper/archive/2008/09/17/on-wall-street-obama-is-all-wonk-and-mccain-is-all-words.aspx

http://my.barackobama.com/page/-/Press/Obama%20fin%20market%20plan%20091608%20FINAL.pdf

Happy reading!!