I'm Only . . . Human?

You know what I find depressing as hell? It's aging celebrities that undergo a thousand surgical procedures in order to "look young." Newsflash: you don't look young - you look like a cyborg. You look scary. You look desperate. But the one thing you definitely don't look is young.

What the alternative? The alternative is to age gracefully. It doesn't take a hell of a lot of money (unlike plastic surgery), but it does take a little bit of effort. What it requires most of all is exercise. 30-60 min. a day is all. Not only is this healthy for you internally, it's healthy for you externally. You feel better . . . and you look better. One of my Karate teachers is a 55 year old woman. She looks fantastic. Not that I ever think I will achieve her level of fitness, but she can do pushups on her fingertips. Totally revolutionized my own perception of  what it meant to grow older.

I think there's a moral level to this, as well. I think we older people have to set a standard for the young. And if we spend tens of thousands of dollars in the service of our own vanity, what message does this convey to the young? Moreover, plastic surgeons are MDs. There are people all over our country who are in serious need of medical care. What does it say about us as a country when so many millions have no access to health care at all while the rest of us seek out doctors not because we need them to heal us but because we want the doctors to help us feel less insecure about our looks?

It's time we began acting like grown-ups. We can begin by looking like grown-ups.

And loving ourselves for it.

The "Tea Party," Part 1

Useful Idiots

You're probably familiar with the term "useful idiots" but for the uninitiated, it's a term - usually ascribed to Lenin - for people who consider themselves allies of political movement but are secretly held in contempt by that movement. And so it is with the Tea Party.

Ask a Teabagger sometime why he considers the Obama presidency - which is all of 2 years old - to be "tyranny." You're likely to hear one (or a combination) of the following.

A) "The country's broke! I want a balanced budget. Spending is out of control."

B) "There are too many government programs." 

C) "He's going to take our guns!" 

D) "He (Obama) is a Muslim!"

E) "He's not an American, wasn't born here, and so his presidency is unconstitutional!" 

You know, we all want a balanced budget. But tell me this: where were these "Tea Partiers" from 2001-2008? Not in the street - that much is for sure. Bush started 2 wars that show no sign of ending anytime soon. To fund these wars (wars of choice I might add), he had to ask Congress for "emergency appropriations" when it became clear that these glorious military campaigns the US had supposedly won at lightning speed had not been won at all. These spending bills were typically in the  100 billion dollar range. As if this weren't enough, Bush did not even allocate any money for these wars in the budgets he submitted to Congress. How much did Congress give him? Every. Penny. He ever. Asked for.

So much for congressional oversight.

And where was the Tea Party? Here: I'll tell you where they were:

[cue sound of crickets]

Hear that? That's what there was: silence. There was no Tea Party. Which leads an intelligent person to ask: Why the sudden genuine, heartfelt, non-partisan opposition to government spending? The answer is that the Tea Party "movement" has nothing to do with opposition to government spending. It has to do with the idea of getting the Republicans back in power. That's generally not the way the Teabaggers see it - but I guarantee you it's the way the Republican leadership - which had fucked up on an unprecedented scale - sees it.

Above all else - above the welfare of the citizens of this country - the Republican leadership wants to see Obama fail. They've made no secret of it. As Mitch McConnell told the National Journal last year: "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president." So they tell the useful idiots that "spending is out of control." The useful idiots go out on the street. Maybe vote, ushering fanatics into power who proceed to defund everything. The current economic situation gets even worse. Obama gets blamed. And there you go: 2 years after leading the country to war economic ruin, they're back in power. Meanwhile the same idiot who is out on the street carrying a misspelled sign just voted into office people who are going to aggravate his economic misery, slashing those programs on which he actually depends: defunding the schools his kids attend, moving to privatize or otherwise abolish the Social Security he's going to need on when he's retires, cutting VA benefits that provide assistance for the soldiers he claims to support, slashing the (modest) stimulus funding that had provided so many jobs in his state. And so on.

Useful idiots . . .

[to be continued]

Born in the USA

Welcome to the Present . . .

Have you ever asked yourself: Are most people actually zombies? No, of course you  haven't. Because zombies don't exist. Having said that, 80-85% of all people in the US have a LOT in common with zombies (to the extent that one can have a LOT in common . . . with a zombie). Consider:

1) Zombies are not particularly attractive. Been to Wal-Mart lately?

2) Zombies are consumers. They do little else than consume.

3) Zombies are not very good at thinking independently. They pretty much follow what they see the mass of other zombies doing. 'Nuff said.

4) Zombies have an terrible diet that is lacking in green vegetables . . . lacking in green anything, actually. Been to Wal-Mart, lately?

5) Zombies are easily fooled. Hell, with a little bit of forethought you can fool zombies into doing things that are actually hurt their cause.

6) And you can get them to fall for the same trick again and again. Zombies are not known for learning from their mistakes.

7) Zombies are very inconsiderate. They will take a chunk out of your neck . . . with nary an Excuse me or Sorry about that to be heard.

8) Zombies are only interested in their own individual welfare. They could give a shit about other zombies  (even when it would benefit them individually to do so - ironic, huh?).

9) Zombies have no appreciation for the arts.

10) Zombies have ugly teeth don't care what they smell like.

On a completely different note . . . been to Wal-Mart lately?