Rants

Did you know…..

Rich people don’t want you to drive on their street. Somehow, they deserve a street without cars. (from the hours of 7-9 am anyway…)

It’s a long story, but my husband and I were driving around Lake Calhoun at 7:50 am today. We were going into Uptown from our home and taking city streets. We were driving along the lake and happened to turn right to reach our destination.

There was a park police man sitting there waiting for people to turn right. He gave us a $147 ticket because we turned right on a road in a rich neighborhood. We saw no signs. There was no traffic coming from the other direction. We were turning right for freakin sake. Apparently that turn was not only illegal but also costly. It was in fact more costly than running a red light. WTF?

I know it’s such a minor thing to complain about in all the injustices of the world. I am a sheltered, work from home, upper middle class, white woman so I don’t really experience this kind of class system treatment as often as many people do. But I have to say, i made me feel just a little bit angrier toward the greedy people and more patient with people who are less fortunate than me. Just in case you were wondering, you do not ‘deserve’ less traffic on your street because you have more money. All the taxes paid for that road in front of your house.

With Bastille day approaching, it just felt very, ‘let them eat cake’.

P. S. I’d rather just pay the taxes than have dumb rules that only service people in nice neighborhoods.

CNN is not news. I cite the following example.

Twice, Anderson Cooper let him say it twice.

Ralph Reed was on CNN tonight and

he said,

’same tired discredited liberal agenda of higher taxes, government run health care, abortion on demand, cut and run in Iraq, a retreat rather than a foward strategy in the war on terrorism…….’

and again said,

‘ not going to respond to a liberal , big government, abortion on demand agenda’

He was criticizing the Dems for going religious.

Wow, that’s a lot of hate for someone that claims to love God so much.

Live and let live Ralpie. I’m not thrilled that religion is dominating the conversation but apparently people need to hear about it. This has been a wedge issue and he’s probably upset that there is an attempt to redefine the space of ‘abortion on demand, big government wussies.’

How is this ‘news I can trust’? Isn’t that what they say? Sigh.

Recently I found out that Jon Stewart who is one of my all time favorites and frankly kind of a hero is coming to perform in Minneapolis. I was really really excited and clicked on the pre-sale link to go get my tickets. I went all the way through to the point of purchase when I realized it was going to cost me an extra $14.30 per ticket. I was only buying two tickets and I’ve always known and complained about those extra costs that you get charged but this time it was a deal breaker. That’s quite a bit of money for the ‘convienence’. Whose convienence is this anyway?

The sad part is that the seats aren’t even that good. It’s in the back right, seats 3 and 4 section T-HH.

I told this story to some friends, all friends that would jump to go see Jon Stewart, and they had the same reaction. An extra $14.30 for what? If I really knew what this was for I might consider paying it. I also remember that these fees did not used to be this high.

Sadly, I will not get to see my hero perform because I just can’t justify an extra almost $30 bucks for my sweetie and me to go line the monopolies pocket. This isn’t good for consumers and it is definitely not good for performers. It was hard making the call to not pay the extra for Jon Stewart but what about other lesser know acts. It will be much easier for me and I imagine others to say, eh, I’m skipping it.

I’m just sayin……

It seems that it is easier than ever these days to create your own reality. Facts are really becoming ’suggestions’. I’m sensing some danger in this approach. It seems a bit irresponsible to ignore what seems to most people-OBVIOUS. Yet, the denial and the cover-up march on.

From the New York Times online today,

“In early December, James Hansen, the space agency’s top climate specialist, called for accelerated efforts to reduce industrial emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases linked to global warming. After his speech, he told Andrew C. Revkin of The Times, he was threatened with “dire consequences” if he continued to call for aggressive action.”

So clearly there are powerful people that aren’t interested in addressing this problem. I just have one question, don’t these people have children and grand children? If they do have heirs, why wouldn’t they want to ensure those heirs would be able to survive and thrive in the future. You can try to hide from reality. You can push it down, to the side, out. You can flat out deny it. But, maybe you should think about what your children’s children will have to say about that when those consequences affect them and perhaps even make it so they can’t even live on this planet.

Of course, you’re powerful and rich so you probably have a plan to get your heirs to the another planet before this one kicks us off. Good luck with that.

I swear she could win. The thing is she should. She cares about people. She is powerful and rich and loved by millions. Talk about somebody that could motivate non-voters to get out there and vote.

It took something like the hurricane to show the world very viscerally, the rich powerful politicians DO NOT care about you. You know, the person that pays taxes. The republicans are concerned with ‘never having to say you’re sorry’. You people are freaks. It is not healthy to behave that way. It’s ok to admit your wrong. I think it’s called, oh I don’t know, Accountability. I remember George talking about that when he ran for president against Al Gore. He also said emphatically that he would not nation build. Iraq is a collassal abuse of my tax money and it’s nation building.

And the Democrats, they don’t really care either. Howard Dean cares about the people. I believe John Kerry does too. He’s a good man. But sadly just no match for the puppet freaks. Not organized enough. Can’t grab the attention of the voting American. And can’t inspire non-voters to vote.

But OPRAH.

She’s kind, inquisitive, inspring and smart. People love Oprah. We need a big shake up. I’d prefer a world with more compassion. We hear about it now, compassionate conservative. I’d like some proof please.

Think about it

&

say it with me…

‘Oprah for President.’

This is really going too far.

“This programming is not simply — it’s not supposed to be the personal playhouse of the left wing in this country.” That’s what George Neumayer claimed this evening on the The News Hour with Jim Lehrer. You can read the entire transcript if you like.

The thing is, there’s no proof. Public television and radio are left wing playgrounds? Those are very strong accusations to throw around without proof.

Commercial media is abhorrent. I have no respect left for journalists other than the journalists on PBS and NPR and all the local affiliates. They are the only journalists left that aren’t driven by market forces.

And as for the fact that the American taxpayer is paying SO MUCH MONEY to fund this liberal playground. Here are the facts.

* UK: $210 per household, Japan: $240 per household
* U.S.: $1.25 per person
* PBS is the least publicly funded public broadcaster in any democratic country

So each of us is paying $1.25 a year for public broadcasting? How much am I paying for that war that I thought was a terrible idea? Why do I have to pay for that again?

This will rip the insides out of rural America. Take away Sesame Street, go ahead. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. I wonder what the children will say when there is no more Big bird. You were so worried about what to tell the children when president Clinton lied, what will you tell them about this?

Just wondering.

Republican, democrat, sick of it or just don’t care? If you like Sesame Street, please tell your Congressperson. Please do something……

his post:

“Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people.”

–George Bernard Shaw
—————————————————

I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit. It’s more relevant now than ever before because the rate of change is so constant. Our world requires a very accelerated adaptation skill set. It must be very frightening to not be comfortable with change. However, it may be that very discomfort that cause things to change and move in your favor.

There is also this notion of disruptive in this quote. ‘Unreasonable’ if you will. We are constantly adapting for the world and adpating it. The most successful art is the kind of art that acts as a mirror on ourselves. The mirror provides a view for constant checking and also deep reflection, if we take that opportunity.

So be aware and be reasonable. But remember to be unreasonable once in awhile too and help to move things forward.

I am so sick of this.

“Reuters: Bush would veto House bill on stem cells.
President George W. Bush (L) is applauded by the Rev. Charles Chaput (R), archbishop of Denver, as he departs the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton, May 20, 2005. Bush asked attendees to ‘pray that America uses the gift of freedom to build a culture of life. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)”

YAY, you’re religious, good for you. God is on your side! that’s right! Truly religious people don’t wear it on their sleeve like that, seems a bit like a vexation of the spirit…..because he’s not on the side of anyone else that’s religious, just you. somehow you are THAT special.

and then,

So we’ve got this insantity going on in the Senate, boohoo why aren’t my judges getting a VOTE. Your judges have almost all been confirmed. But I know, you’re sad because you’re only hitting like what 97% of your judges getting in. And those people activists anyway, legislating from the bench DAMN THEM!

i’m the boy king!

ok, i get it.

now, can we please get back to caring about the actual freakin people in the country!

It is appalling what power has done to all of you. It’s kind of disgusting. And I don’t think that the inability of the other side to bring it down a notch doesn’t go unnoticed.

We all suck. People can just really suck. It’s sad. But I guess you have to fill your life and surround yourself away from that noise. Out of protection. That’s how they get you. When you aren’t paying attention.

UGH!