I remember once saying that I didn't think John McCain was a bad guy, I just didn't agree with him. Well, I take it back.

In the past six months John McCain has revealed his character to be nothing less than dispicable and disgusting. His campaign has become increasingly respectless and accusing, and no one can try to convince me that he isn't perpetuating the ridiculous stereotypes about Barack Obama that we've all heard. His cronies are nothing more than a misinformed mob of hate filled and ignorant racists. These ideas have to be coming from somewhere; you know they're not just forming out of thin air. There has to be some reason why McCain/Palin supporters are showing up to rallies chanting "kill him, kill him," and accusing Obama of being a Muslim, as if being a Muslim automatically qualifies one as a terrorist. And what, exactly, are Daddy McCain and Sarah Sunshine doing to defuse these lies? Well, lets see...in response to one supporter's concern that "Obama is an arab", McCain said something like "Obama is a decent man," neither flagrantly denying the myth nor having the decency to point out that identifying as Arabic or Muslim does not a terrorist make. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but isn't this the individual who vowed to run a respectful and clean campaign?

I honestly think the man is losing his ever loving mind. You already know how I feel about his VP pick; that is just the pitiful beginning. It has all been downhill from there.
During speeches and debates he has exhibited the characteristics of a sick and power hungry individual; the smirks, the sadistic grins, the glazed stare, the fist pumps into the air (at least as high as his vet arm will allow). He has lied, perpetuated lies, and accepted and promoted Sarah Palin's lies. Everything that this campaign has stood for has been unethical and self-destructive.

One part of me says "keep it up, run yourself into the ground, all the better for our team," but the other half of me is bewildered that this behavior is acceptable, and that so many people could possibly buy into this ignorance. Forget all the hate and scaremongering that is going on within the Republican party at the moment, forget the lies, the deviations from the issues; the real fear is in the fact that these people are so influential and could very well become the next president and vice president. This country has been through enough to deal with another political team that will go to any lengths to obtain the power that they want. My friends, it scares me, and it should scare you too.


Did you see this?


or this?

South Dakrazy

Well what do you know, South Dakota is at it again.
A state that currently makes obtaining an abortion a near impossibility is trying to reduce the occurrence of the procedure even more. After a rejected attempt to outlaw virtually all abortions in 2006, the state’s lawmakers are adding another initiative to the ballot this coming Election Day. The anti-abortion group Vote Yes for Life is pushing a new version of the 2006 initiative that would make all abortions illegal except for “cases of rape, incest and a narrow interpretation of the health and life of the woman.”

Current abortion laws in South Dakota are so strict that their validity under Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) is extremely questionable. As a matter of fact, the abortion laws in South Dakota were specifically designed to challenge Roe with hopes of eventually overturning it. At this point, women seeking an abortion in the state are faced with several obstacles. There is currently only one abortion clinic in the state and women must travel several hours to reach it. As if that doesn’t make things difficult enough, under the law they must be informed that an abortion would "terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique living human being.” On top of that, “each woman must be told that abortion increases the risk of ‘suicide ideation and suicide,’ a medically disputed assertion, and must be offered the chance to view a sonogram. A 24-hour waiting period is required.”

The 1992 case Planned Parenthood v. Casey upheld Roe, but allowed a waiting period. The court also placed an “undue burden” standard on the law. This standard says that the state may discourage abortion, but may not place an undue burden on a woman. An undue burden is defined as “the purpose or effect of placing a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion of a nonviable fetus." The South Dakota laws do just that, and if the November 4 ballot initiative passes, the burden will be even greater.

In layman's terms, these pro-lifers are so damned bored that they have nothing better to do than sit around and try to figure out ways to strip women of every last constitutional right, and their dignity to boot. What I'm really incensed about is the fact that women, who are already facing obvious difficulties if they are considering abortion, are being put through even more by the state. Pro-lifers always act like we women are just flopping our vaginas here and there and then saying..."Oopsy, time for another abortion!" They never take into consideration that for a woman to even decide to have an abortion, the circumstances must be pretty grim.
All their disgusting, over exaggerated, fear-mongering literature depicts happy little mommies with happy little baby bumps and Gymboree bags full of goodies for the baby to be. Maybe if they would get their heads of out their evangelical, right-wing asses, they might realize that most of the women who need abortions are not fit to be mothers in any way.
I guess they also believe that every little magical god-sent baby put up for adoption is going to find a loving family, even if they are so deformed or crack-addicted that they'll need special care for the rest of their life.

These people are so depraved and out of touch that they force lies into legislation and make doctors give women seeking abortions a little spiel about how they're probably going to commit suicide from all the guilt. This is a medically disputed fact, yet it is still required according to the law. The worst part is that if this initiative passes, a woman who is raped or is a victim of incest will also have to be put through the bureaucratic ringer as the state requires DNA testing to determine if the fetus is a product of the rape. This means that on top of being raped, women will be subject to questioning, testing, humiliation, and then, only possibly, the abortion procedure.

Now, I'm not so sure about the rate of suicide among typical abortion recipients, but if this three-ring circus doesn't send someone off the deep end, I don't know what would.

Between John McCain's series of whistles and hisses, and Barack Obama's "uh uh uhhs," I felt like tonight's debate could have just as easily been an event in the Special Olympics.
The same old rhetoric was rehashed, neither candidate provided anything special to mull over, and they danced around the questions. On top of that, I thought the moderator was pretty pathetic, the questions were mediocre at best, and I was basically bored with the whole thing.

For whatever reason, every time I prepare to watch a debate I feel like something riveting is about to take place. Someone is going to say something profound, someone is going to get furious enough to fight, anything. But, alas, it never happens that way; it's always just the same old boring this and that. I wish for once, one of the candidates would slip up and call the other an idiot. I long for the days when politicians were tough-talking, smoking so and so's that cursed and spit and banged their fists on the podium. All we get now are a bunch of politically correct pansies that smirk and giggle and say "With all due respect." Everything is so scripted, everyone is so contained.

This is why more Americans watch boxing matches than the debates. Sure, I want an even-tempered President, but I also want one that will grow a pair when need be and stand his ground when the other is a blatant idiot. Even miniature Dennis Kucinich, standing on two milk crates, could out debate these jerks. And it would be entertaining to boot.

Don't get me wrong, I am an Obama supporter 'til the bitter end, but he needs to get it together and put McCain in his place. He is obviously the more intelligent of the two, but he needs to take a few tips from my woman Hillary and learn how to fight it out when necessary.

As for the Biden/Palin debate...LOL is all I can say. I hope he doesn't take it easy on her because he could really, really tear her a new one. The woman can't even hold her own with Katie freaking Couric, I mean...honestly?

"I'll try to find ya some and I'll bring 'em to ya!"

Sarah Palin: A Politician in Wolves' Clothing

Is it just me or would anyone else like to see VP nominee Sarah Palin chased by a low-flying helicopter and gunned down like the poor wolves she so loves to see suffer?
OK, OK...before you call the feds, let me make it clear that I am only trying to illustrate a point.
And that point is: I hate, hate, hate this woman, and every day I hate her more.

I can't even begin to enumerate all the reasons why she makes my skin crawl, but let me try. There is the fact that she is just a more unbearable (if possible) Jerry Falwell in drag.
She is the antithesis of any strong, progressive woman that I happen to admire (i.e. Hillary Clinton), and she has a personal vendetta against anything with four legs and enough fur that she can rip off and wrap around herself (pro-life my ass).

I don't give a crap and a half about her pregnant daughter or her kid with Down's Syndrome; women are just as capable as men to work and be parents simultaneously, but anyone who can murder and gut a living creature in front of their small child deserves to have her children taken away.

Typically when children are mean to animals they are emotionally disturbed, those are the people who grow up to be serial killers (Jeffrey Dahmer anyone?) So I have to wonder why when Sarah Palin teaches her kids to hunt, it is seen as tough, rugged, and deliciously upper-crust. We'll see how tough and rugged she is when little Piper Palin is being hauled off to juvie for setting her 4th grade class on fire.

Alls I can say is that this woman, even disregarding her lack of experience and information, is still one of the most dispicable and heinous politicians--and people--that I have ever had the misfortune of knowing about. I hope for the sake of women, animals, and people everywhere, that she will be on the losing ticket this November.

Worked Up So Textual

At the risk of sounding like a 75 year old cat lady who "walked to school every day in three feet of snow," let me just say: manners have totally gone to hell these days.

Again, at the risk of sounding like the Unabomber, it's all because of the blasted technology.

I swear to Christ, while walking to class today, I stopped to talk to a friend, and he pulled out his cell phone and began text messaging in the middle of our conversation. He was able to tune me completely out in a matter of 1 second. There was no "excuse me while I take this," no apology for being rude, nothing!

This isn't really an uncommon occurrence... actually it happens quite often among people my age. And when it does, instead of the text fiend apologizing to the unsuspecting conversationalist, the poor talker feels like she is interrupting some secretive exchange that she isn't invited to join.

At any given point in the middle of any given class, at least 90 percent of my classmates are either on lap tops, text messaging, or just totally incapacitated. If I am so miffed about being ignored in favor of words on a cell phone screen, I can only imagine how a professor feels when trying to engage a class full of technology-dependent drones.

Now, I'm not saying that I disapprove of technology completely, I mean, obviously I'm not blogging with a quill and scroll, but something has to give. Are the people of my generation and those after doomed to spend eternity with their fingers attached to a keyboard and their eyes fixed on a screen? Will all forms of in-person conversation eventually become obsolete? And if so, are all the traditional manners that I have known until now doomed to follow?