please excuse my unsophisticated rant

Wake up! Wake up and realize that you have so much more than most people in this world. Do you have a job that you hate? Maybe, but 8% (and growing) of the people in this country would trade places with you. Do you have a roof over your head? Do you have indoor plumbing? Because the majority of the people on this planet don't. Are you upset because you might have to pay more for trash services? Well, maybe you should just be happy you have them because the many people don't even have the option of having basic sanitation services. WE ARE SO LUCKY! Now, do something about it! No, seriously, if we all just did one little thing, the world would be a much better place.

Online dating sucks

There is nothing more damaging to your ego than to put your profile on a dating service and not get any responses from ANY of the people you are interested in.

Look--I know I'm not the easiest person to get along with sometimes, but they don't even know that yet. And, I know I'm not a super model, but COME ON PEOPLE, I don't think I'm completely ugly, either. Arg! If I can't get a response from a normal guy on a site where I've carefully chosen my words and pictures, what does that say about my chances anywhere?!?!?!?

This is the stuff that should be covered...

From National Journal Magazine (http://www.nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/cg_20090307_7659.php)

"We will lose on legislation. But we will win the message war every day, and every week, until November 2010," said Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., an outspoken conservative who has participated on the GOP message teams. "Our goal is to bring down approval numbers for [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and for House Democrats. That will take repetition. This is a marathon, not a sprint."

Really? How about making it your goal to FIX THE ECONOMY?

Give Prop 8 the boot

You can watch the Prop 8 legal challenge oral arguments live here from 9-12 (PST) today (Thursday March 5). I'm not sure if I will watch them live or not, because I can't tell if both sides will be arguing and I'm not sure I can can refrain from yelling at the people in favor of upholding the ruling, and since I'll be at work, it might not be appropriate. Maybe there will be a pod cast...

Message from the squawk box

Among the many infuriating things that Limbaugh did and said during his keynote speech at CPAC, he thought it important to let everyone know what conservatives really stand for. And, I'm not a conservative, but I'm not convinced he did a bang-up job representing his party. On the surface, he makes it sound like there is no biased toward any groups, that conservatives (based on his definition) love everyone:

"When we look out over the United States of America, when we are anywhere, when we see a group of people, such as this or anywhere, we see Americans. We see human beings. We don't see groups. We don't see victims. We don't see people we want to exploit. What we see -- what we see is potential. We do not look out across the country and see the average American, the person that makes this country work. We do not see that person with contempt. We don't think that person doesn't have what it takes. We believe that person can be the best he or she wants to be if certain things are just removed from their path like onerous taxes, regulations and too much government."
--http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/03/01/transcript-rush-limbaughs-address-cpac/ (emphasis mine)

But there is a very dangerous message in those words. The idea that the "average American" has not yet attained the best he or she can be, implies that they are somehow inferior. This is the very reason we have such strong class divides, the very reason that rates for smoking, drinking, and drug abuse rise as income decreases; we are telling the average worker, "Joe the Plumber," if you will, that what he does isn't good enough, that they haven't attained all they can.

Chris Buttars...championing the "spiritual and moral framework" of our government one idiotic comment at a time

Chris Buttars, a member of the Utah State Senate, (a glowing beacon of a red state, so maybe I shouldn't be so surprised) has gotten press lately for his defense of marriage comments. What gets me is this is his statement defending himself on his website:

“Despite the recent venom directed at him for defending traditional values, Senator Buttars will never abandon the framework of spiritual and moral values upon which our government was founded. Senator Buttars will continue to stand against the very aggressive special interest groups whose mission is to eliminate all traditional and moral values from government.” (http://www.chrisbuttars.com/home/issues)

This complete and blatant disregard for separation of church and state baffles me. How can an elected official actually say that our government was founded on spiritual and moral values? I want to find this man and do horrible, horrible things to him. Oh, and for the record, we are on the brink of giving Utah one more seat in the House (http://www.sltrib.com/ci_11793280).