Author: cyrakitty

Pathetic. . . or is it just depressing?

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Going to the doctor is bad enough.  But then their endless penchant for running late and forcing you to listen to a television at top volume is pushing it, in my opinion.  However, I would like to share with you something that was said on this intrusive waiting room TV.  The station playing was our local news station, Bay News 9.  By the way, I am utterly thankful that it was not FOX “right-wing – it is news because we say so – even though we are lying” News.  But I digress.

Now, Bay News 9 seems half way decent.  They cover mostly local news and offer weather every ten minutes – “on the 9’s”.  Prior to one of these weather reports the meteorologist said – and I quote, “Klystron 9 – The most colorful television radar.”  Um, really?  Have we sunk so low as a society that we no longer care about content or accuracy as long as it is “colorful”?  Have we dissolved into a nation with ADD (or ADHD) mentality, needing to have a kaleidoscopic and quick moving world to keep our attention?

Sadly, I think the answer is yes.  Our education rates close to the bottom in all the areas of reading, math and science (33, 27 and 22 respectively – out of 33 by the way).  Who is ranked the highest?  Finland with scores of 2, 1 and 1 – Korea beat them out for the number 1 spot in reading.  Ok, lets bring it closer to home, how about our Canadian brothers and sisters?  Canada ranks 3, 5 and 2.  But those socialist commies have no clue what they are doing, or so we are told.  (By the way, all these lists and many more can be found here.)

Maybe I am overreacting.  Why not now look at some other scores?  Let’s do it, I have not reached the correct stage of inadequacy yet.  Adult literacy ranking according to the OECD – #9.  Health Care Quality – #37.  Women’s Rights – #17.  Life Expectancy – #29.  Journalistic Press Freedom – #32 and that is with Finland, Iceland, Norway and the Netherlands being tied for 1st place.  Political Corruption Index – #17 (no surprise there).  And I will finally stop with the Environmental Sustainability Index – #45.

People, especially right-wing politicians, try to whip the population into a patriotic fervor – “America is the best!!  Woo-hoo!!”  Well, the above statistics tend to poke a few holes in this argument, but then, when do fact ever stand in their way?  We may still be a world power but it is simply due to our size and our busy-body attitude of having to stick our nose in everyone else’s business.  We have our hands in cookie jars globally and most of which are out of simple self-interest.  We have become the bumbling bully, the Bluto of the cosmos.  We want to help South Africa for diamonds and the Middle East for oil.  Our government couldn’t give a rats ass for the people of these nations or the governments they instill.  That is what upsets me about the whole Egypt situation.  The US Government doesn’t really care whether they develop a “democracy” – especially since Bush proved even that can be bought.  I feel we can deplore the violence and offer guidance, sure.  But when the people themselves are shouting “We hate America”, then maybe our presence and especially our prominent pushing is causing more harm than good.

I am not saying Mubarak isn’t an asshole – maybe he is – but so was Bush and we were unable to uproot him from his 8 years squatting in the White House.  But then we didn’t think about throwing Molotov cocktails.

This has been a long and winding post – for which I apologize.  The point I am making is that we have not made progress or enjoyed world respect since the time of Kennedy.  In fact we have slipped rapidly downhill.  This does not have to lead to the bleak and dreadful existence I have alluded to, but it will require a lot of hard work and innovation.  We have to stop thinking only of ourselves and our instant gratification, our gas-guzzling SUVs and our HD TVs.  We have to pull ourselves out of this self made rut, respect one another and show a little courtesy.

9 Year-Old Boy With A Heart Of Gold

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Grab your tissues, because if you are like me this story will make you teary.

Nine-year old Isaac Saldana and his brother were about to walk their dog when the news announced the shootings of a little girl and Gabrielle Giffords (among others) in Arizona.  Isaac told the Huffington Post “I just thought, whoa! I didn’t know that people carry around guns here in Tucson. It scared me a little.”  He continued, saying “I felt really bad about Gabrielle being in the hospital and getting shot, so I just wanted to help her.”

However, Isaac had an idea.  He decided to sell his toys and even a bracelet his father had given him.  He filled his backpack and sold the items at school, even getting in trouble with his teacher and having his backpack taken away.

Well, young Isaac was able to raise $2.84.  So he put it in an envelope with a get well card and sent it off to the Giffords’.  Isaac’s mother, Aracely, was unaware of what her son was up to.  When she found out she understandably got a little choked up.  “For him to go out of his way, risk getting in trouble to do a good thing — that was just awesome,” she said. “I was crying. I am extremely proud of my children.”

Giffords’ husband Mark told KVOA News in Tucson that he planned to “get [Saldana] his lunch money back.”  But Isaac said he won’t accept it.

“I don’t really want it back,” he said. “I think she needs it.”

Now, this whole story is amazing to me.  And at risk of embarrassing myself, when I was nine, I had no clue what was going on the world. I didn’t pay much attention to the news or current events.  I was blissfully unaware of anything outside my world of school, cartoons and teenie bopper music.  Yes, the amount of money he raised is small but the important issue is that he cared enough to do something.  He used the resources he had available and in his way, he made a difference.

Aracely Saldana has every right to be proud of her children.  And she should also feel good that she must be doing an excellent job of raising her three children.  If they can be selfless enough, have enough compassion – it is something that should be celebrated and embraced.  And I personally would like to thank this family for giving me hope.  Hope that maybe one day we can turn this country around and once again have it moving forward.

Joan Rivers? Really? I’m impressed!

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Wow, now there is finally a good reason to LIKE Joan Rivers.  I know, I am as shocked as you are.  But here is the scoop.

During a recent interview with TMZ, she referred to Sarah Palin as “stupid and a threat.”  Although this is a true statement, good ol’ Palin loving FOX News had another view.  They axed her upcoming interview on their show Fox News and Friends.

When FOX called Rivers’ PR people they stated the reason for the cancellation was her views and statements about Palin.  Now we have known Joan for a long time now, and one thing we can say with certainty is that she is not quiet.  Now, FOX is required to do some political spin and has released a statement saying some mumbo-jumbo about the “volume of new topics” and that they (tut-tut) just didn’t have room to squeeze her in.  What a shame.

Stick with me, this gets better.  Joan also said in the TMZ interview that everyone was “right to blame Sarah for the shootings (the recent attack on an Arizona congresswoman that left six people dead.) Go look at her website. This woman is encouraging sandbaggers to reload …”   Ok, I’m starting to love this woman.  Again, very true statement.  Palin had a map on her website that showed crosshairs indicating people we need “to take a stand” against.  Not only that, but she listed each person at the bottom of the map.  And who was under one of those crosshairs?  You guessed it, Arizona Congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords.  And what happened to her?  She was brutally and heartlessly shot in the head because she favored health care for the little people.

If you would like to read the full article on Joan and her FOX run-in go here:  Sarah Palin jibe no joke to Fox News

Check out Sarah Palin’s crosshairs map:

M&Ms

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Well, I am a huge fan of the M&M. Big chocolaty goodness in a little bite size wrapper. They do seem to be going a little crazy with the flavors. But, hey, you know what? I’m willing to overlook that if you can answer me one thing – why is it you always get one burnt peanut in a small bag of M&Ms? Are you serious? These little jewels are amazing. You know when you pick up the little bag that it is going to be booby trapped – but does that stop you? No! There you are munching merrily away when – WHAM! Dear God, what is that horrible taste??

Now, I seem quite content to get the burnt one at the beginning of my munchable journey. You see, then I know the rest of my bag is safe and will provide a most enjoyable experience. However, if it arrives at the end of the bag – well all bets are off. And if I am pissy one day all you need do is ask “M&Ms?” Does this make me odd?

No worries as to the answer to that question – I am already aware of the resounding “yes” even before you thought it.However, if you get a big bag you are likely to be safe. Are the M&M people telling those of us who buy little bags that we are being cheap somehow? (I can’t help it that the vending machine doesn’t offer massive quantities.) Or is it that you are less likely to eat the whole bag in one go and therefore are less likely to notice a burnt one? Or did you give it to a child who was looking for something sweet – or the co-worker with PMS? Who knows. But I believe there is a special line at the M&M factory just for burnt peanuts. And there is some poor guy sitting on the line and placing one in every small bag (then giving it a quick shake for good measure).
Now you know.

Lies: And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken

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One of the most brutal and intellectual insights into the United States government and mindset up through about 2003. Al Franken has a remarkable talent of seeing, truthfully, what our psychotic government is up to. Using humor and insight, Mr. Franken dissects some of the biggest lies of the beginning of the Bush Humiliation Years (as I like to call them), including Weapons of Mass Destruction; how Mr. Bush and his cronies stole the election and divided the country amongst themselves; Bush’s deep ties to oil and Bin Ladden; and everything that comes out of Ann Coulter’s mouth.

Let us not forget how Mr. Bush managed to disintegrate our country in a matter of mere months. “When President Clinton left office America enjoyed tremendous respect and admiration around the world. . . . But as soon as he became president, Bush managed to spend Clinton’s surplus of international goodwill in astonishingly short order. He ditched Kyoto, the antiballistic treaty, the germ warfare protocol to the Biological Weapons Convention, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the International Criminal Court, and the land mine treaty.” Not to mention attempting to privatize everything in the country. Mr. Bush has done nothing more than illegally squat in the White House, playing with tanks and pushing buttons like a retarded child. (My deepest apologies to anyone suffering from retardation for lack of a better analogy.) Mr. Bush was not elected to the office of President, and once there decided to tear down all progress that has been made by every leader since the 1920’s.

I would like to close with 2 quotes that I feel fit Bush and his regime. The first is from the movie “Inherit the Wind” about the 1925 trial of John Thomas Scopes for teaching evolution in school. I believe it fits his religious fanaticism as well as what he has done to the country. “Can’t you understand? That if you take a law like evolution and you make it a crime to teach it in the public schools, tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in the private schools? And tomorrow you may make it a crime to read about it. And soon you may ban books and newspapers. And then you may turn Catholic against Protestant, and Protestant against Protestant, and try to foist your own religion upon the mind of man. If you can do one, you can do the other. Because fanaticism and ignorance is forever busy, and needs feeding. And soon, your Honor, with banners flying and with drums beating we’ll be marching backward, BACKWARD, through the glorious ages of that Sixteenth Century when bigots burned the man who dared bring enlightenment and intelligence to the human mind!”

Finally, Julius Caesar. “Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar.”

Just in case you need a few more reasons, visit 84 Reasons Why Bush Must Go.