Scoreboard is now tied: Sarah 1, Humankind 1

We dodged a serious bullet when Sarah Palin was not vice president.  So, humankind 1, Sarah 0.

Then she scored big while we were feeling sorry for her. As a result of her “quitter” mentality and crazy press blitz, more Republicans than ever before support her and would vote for her for president in 2012.  Sarah tied the score at 1 all.

I still think I watched Sarah Palin have a mini-breakdown before the cameras and I felt sorry for her, as I would anyone who was unraveling and even more so because she was doing so in the public view.

Now I also think she is crazy like a fox (or sociopath) AND I don’t understand a portion of the population of this great country.

I am really not crazy.I am really not crazy.I am really not crazy.I am really not crazy.I am really not crazy.  (That’s my writing it like I mean it.)

Another transportation adventure

So, I was in a cab on the way to the airport to come home and the driver was making conversation. He was born in Russia, raised in Argentina and Rochester, NY and now in San Diego. Think war crimes by parents. He got on the subject of drinking a “glass of tea” and I mentioned that my grandparents used that phrase. He asked if I were Jewish. I responded yes and asked him if he were, also. He is not. But my being Jewish got him on the subject of the Holocaust. And how horrible it was and how humans are the only animals capable of torture. Think psycho. Then he said that he taped a 3-part series on the Holocaust and that he has hundreds of hours of tapes of shows on various atrocities throughout the ages. He gave an impassioned dissertation on the need for universal human rights and understanding among all religions. Think psycho in a kumbaya moment. He also happens to be an expert on “your tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and so on.” Think scary individual from hell in a kumbaya moment.We he let me off at the airline terminal safely, I gave him an extra tip for not being a total psycho.

Second thought of the day, July 8, 2009

A (former, I hope) CIA analyst  appeared on the Glenn Beck show and said the best thing for us is if Bin Laden attacked us again so that the government would finally protect us. (ok, set aside the logical flaws for a moment.)

If this lunatic were, let’s say, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and not some nerdy white guy, would MSNBC be the only news outlet covering this?  If Bush were in power, would the guy be on his way to Gitmo?

Marion Barry (DC Mayor) and Richard Nixon and Sarah Palin

Marion Barry, formerly known as the crack smoking, prostitute patronizing mayor of DC, who reincarnated as a religious, righteous man and DC council member, is in trouble for stalking someone.  Hell, next year, the man will get a lifetime achievement award at the fancy Press Corps dinner with the president speaking.  After all, Marion Barry sells newspapers.  Richard Nixon, our disgraced, drug addicted (prescription pills are sooooo establishment), criminal ex-president, was reincarnated as an elder statesman in his later years. Now that I think of it, I am really scared that Sarah Palin could really make a comeback. Because, clearly, anything is possible in America.

Dear Mr. President

I am one of the lucky ones. I am healthy and I have savings and I have a job. And I am scared out of my wits by this economic disaster.

I used to be steady and strong and now I feel powerless in this multi-faceted crisis. I am whipped around like an autumn leaf in the wind.

As long as you talk, Mr. President, I feel safe. But then I go to lectures and I read articles and watch the talking heads on the 24 shmews cycle and everyone has six different opinions and no answers. It is the consensus (from self-proclaimed “experts”) of the talking heads that that we are still in free fall although we’ve caught on to part of a ledge for now, and the problems cannot be fixed because they are not fixable without throwing out the system and starting over.

Please, Mr. President, and, please, members of Congress, don’t take political advantage. Save our nation, restore our faith, be tough with those of us who knowingly borrowed more than we could afford and, most especially, those who gamed the system and gambled away our livelihoods and futures.

Stop all the in-fighting. Write legislation that works and not that is merely expedient.

Iran

In this country, most quietly watched the post 9/11 erosion of our civil liberties.  There weren’t countrywide protests.  When we found out our country tortured people — even possibly US citizens — mostly, we did nothing.  Maybe we thought that the Bush-Cheney regime could only last for 8 years and then it must come to an end.  But we love our voice, we lost our outrage and we retreated into our complacency.  In Iran, the protests, mostly led by women, face down weapons and the full force of a repressive regime.  But unless we commit to go into Iran, I think the President is right that we need to temper our words.  People in this country are quick to talk but not so quick to commit to act (unless it is for senseless wars).

To have a voice in this chaotic world

I often wonder why I wanted to start a blog. Probably because in this loud, crowded world I wanted to carve out a space for my voice. Today was a weird day for me. We are a gay family — two women with a young boy.  Our synagogue sent a general email burst to tell us that a religious hate group — the same group that celebrates every death in Iraq and picketed at Matthew Shepard’s funeral — were coming to protest at our synagogue this morning. Now, let’s think about that. We are a family and members of a synagogue, and today we were having a birthday party for our son. Imagine, the Cleavers (only not so much) with the Beav — we work, we pay our taxes, we are good neighbors, we have the grandparents and aunts and uncles to dinner every Sunday night, we do and give charity, we try to balance career with family, our son’s education and health comes first and his job in life, among others, is to do more for the next generation than we did for him. Why again is anyone protesting my life? My loving family somehow undermines the lives and futures of a poverty-level family without health care and without job training? If I were Republican I could see how my political, social and economic views would undermine that family. But I am a Democrat, willing to pay extra in taxes for universal health care, for prenatal care, for job retraining. And I assure you that amount I pay in taxes every year would shock that family. So, I am a tax-paying (and willing to pay more), synagogue going, hard-working, family woman who loves her partner and her son more than anything in the world. Oh, I am a lesbian. Ahhhhh, THAT’s it. Whaaaaaat?

Perspective

So, I decided to run to the office today because there are no clients expected in the office and I had already spoken to a few clients early in the morning (G-d bless blackberries and cell phones notwithstanding my prior entries) and I knew no one would get back to me until later in the afternoon. I ran by the Hudson River, listening to music that makes you want to fling yourself out of a window and feeling sorry for myself. I saw all of these people sunbathing and reading the paper and I thought, “don’t you know our whole financial system is teetering on the edge?” They did not look like they were laid off because they didn’t have that I-am-on-an-IV-drip-of-Ativan look. They were calm. I ramped up the fling-yourself-out-the-window (FYOTW) music with Carly Simon’s songs about losing her mother and Tracy Chapman’s songs about doing everything for unworthy lovers. Then, I past the Sanitation Department site and thought wow this is worse than working as a barista in Starbucks when Starbucks was new and clean.  Then I kept running (ok limping) until I turned off the path in the 40s. I saw the most peaceful demonstration across the street from the People Republic of China’s consulate. The demonstration alleged torture and cruelty to members of Falun Gong. Homeless people were entranced by the serenity and silence of the protesters. So was I. Then I past construction workers who didn’t notice me because they are more polite these days (and NOT because I am 45). At a red light, I was privy to an intimate and heart-wrenching tid-bit about a seemingly not-quite-right older woman trying to hold onto her room in an apartment and her mother and sister being very distressed about the situation. Then the light turned green and the smell of Port Authority accosted me. Is this how bus travelers first experience New York? Calling Mayor Bloomberg!!!!!!

The soon-to-be-in-law

So, I met my over-40 sister’s boyfriend.

Ok, the Jewish view: blond goy with no advanced degree and he draws pictures of pigeons (“birds”, whatever). Excuse me while I put my head in the oven.

Now, the normal view: He is lovely. He held his own in a rough crowd: (i) me, (ii) my partner, (iii) our child, (iv) my partner’s curmudgeon father, (v) our weekend sitter, and (vi) her girlfriend. AND, he knew that I thought he could be a serial killer. He draws beautifully and is really smart. A little too much information in his stories, but when the family is in full swing, no one will let him talk. He is wonderful to my sister and they complement each other in a wonderful way. Clinically speaking, he is not looking for fertile ovaries and since we don’t have to worry about the religion of the progeny, Jewish or non-Jewish is like tomAYto, tomAHto.

So, forgive me, Grandma, but he’s a keeper