Shit Demon

I saw this picture of Hillz this morning before work and thought it looked familiar.

Everybody Wants To Be…

I was involved in a discussion a couple of weeks ago that has stayed with me and left me feeling dirty and gross. It happened after the hockey game I wrote about, immediately after we got off the train with the women from the Obama rally. My friends and I were standing at the station waiting for the next train, and politics naturally became the topic of conversation.

I was with three friends, two of whom are dating. One is slightly more conservative than my best friend and me, and the other, her boyfriend, fancies himself a “real” libertarian, despite his affection for the Bush administration (welcome to the Twilight Zone). He revealed that he supported Ron Paul, which I have absolutely nothing to say about because the thought merits nothing more than a blank stare. His girlfriend is more liberal, but she said she’d vote for McCain over Hillary just because she “can’t stand [her].” (I’d like to note that she’s the one getting her Master’s this semester, supposedly far more educated than the rest of us, right?)

They were surprised to find that I hadn’t yet decided for whom I would vote in the primary, and caucus for. I don’t even remember how it came up, but I said the words “Hillary” and “healthcare” in the same sentence and you would’ve thought I had whipped out my magic Stalin keychain and commanded them to bow before it, preferably in worship but at least in reverence.

Dude: Why should I pay for your healthcare?!
Chick: Socialized healthcare is such bullshit… if you were in Canada you’d have been waiting 6 months for that CT scan.
Best Friend: Honey… socialized healthcare is good… in theory.

I didn’t say socialized anything! I didn’t say you should pay for my healthcare. I didn’t say socialized healthcare was the pinnacle of Democracy and the most man can hope to achieve, possibly resulting in the second (or first) coming of Jesus or a Buffy movie. I didn’t say it was without flaw. I didn’t say I was even in favor of it.

I simply said “healthcare.” And the gauntlet materialized. It got much worse after that, but at least it didn’t last long because none of us wanted to take it onto the train. This has really annoyed me for over a week now - not in a debilitating way, but more like a slight toothachy way, the kind that comes and goes and you still worry about it when it’s not there because you think something might be wrong, but at the same time you’re glad that it isn’t happening at that particular moment because, wow, toothaches are really annoying, and then all that thinking about it causes it to come back.

So the only thing I even said about “healthcare” after that was that our system needed major reforms, but I feel gross and dirty because even if I did believe what they projected onto me, my opinion would’ve been “such bullshit,” or at best, a cute “theory.”

About this situation, I have a theory alright. But I can’t figure out if I think this because it’s true or because I’m insecure. Either way, any future political discussions amongst us will result in my immediate need to be anywhere else, including but not limited to on the toilet seat with explosive diarrhea.

Some friends, huh?

Propagandist

I made this after a comment Ryan made (please don’t hate me). He’s back in full force with his outstanding American Idol recaps, by the way. And by full force, I mean he has a boyfriend who distracts him now with what I can only imagine are boyfriendish activities, the likes of which I’ve never known. But you should still read his updates.

All That Talk…

About Obama and suddenly I remembered how much I liked Hillary again. Ahh, the fickleness of politics.

Or at least me.

…Once and For All.

Since I first gained interested in politics and learned all the ways government can help and harm you, I’ve repeatedly had all of my hope robbed. Obama said something in a speech that really hit home: We are hungry for change and we are ready to believe again. For the last four years, I’ve been convinced that all hope was lost and that it wouldn’t be soon before “the end,” in some way, was near.

But after listening to Obama speak and reading his speeches, I started feeling the same way I did when I first heard Howard Dean speak in early 2003… like maybe there is hope, a future for this country that doesn’t involve war and fascism and fearmongering and oppression. Maybe I’m wrong, and maybe it’s all rhetoric. But at least for now, I feel like there’s hope again. And it feels good.

I had been behind Hillary, but I realize now that she is more of the same. We need change. Even if only a slight shift. We need a leader who can unite. A leader who can tell the truth, however unpopular. A leader we can hold accountable. And for God’s sake, a leader who can sew a seed of inspiration, if not be the inspiration. Hopefully… this is our guy.

CNN Republican Debate

Was this a debate or Last Comic Standing? Did McCain really bring Hitler into it? Not one question about Healthcare? That’s insane! The Democrats and the Republicans are on entirely different planets (and neither of them on Earth). But the Republicans are undeniably worse. Oh Lord, let my enemies be ridiculous. And God granted it.

How Far We’ve Come

Someone reminded me today that Michael Moore’s Sicko was available. So I got it and just finished. Maybe if you eat something minty while watching, you won’t end up with that disgusting American aftertaste in your mouth (like asbestos and zoloft with a hint of mercury).

We really do need a revolution, and I’m not talking about the modern American kind: forwarding a scathing email attack, “click[ing] here” to send a personalized copy of this petition to your senator, not buying gasoline on December 1st (and instead doing it on the 2nd)…

Sometimes I have to remind myself that, beyond my ego, I am primarily a robot programmed to eat Cheetos and drink soda and fear my government and react accordingly to whatever’s the Boogeyman at the moment and ask my doctor about new medications. It can be an uphill battle.

We need a real revolution. I’d love to see Americans just stop going to work. All of them. I think that’s what a revolution today would look like. It’s about the easiest thing us lazy Americans could do, but how many of us are willing to sacrifice our comforts and amenities? Very few, I think. Gods forbid we live without air conditioning until our government breaks.

Most of us can’t even be bothered to vote.

Spit.

I Voted!

Congratulations are in order for a certain Mr. Albert Gore. I’d like to simply state my support for his non-candidacy. The man has become a beacon and I feel like the Presidency would diminish that. Washington is useless, it may as well stay that way under one of the robots running for the Dem ticket.

Here’s a line I’d like to hear from one of them during a debate: “All the abortion rights and gay marriages and guns and wars in the Middle East and border fences and healthcare in the world won’t mean a thing when Earth as we know it dies and takes most of us with it.”

OH SNAP.