Not Another Lapse!!!

See, let time slip between posting to this blog and the next thing I know I am slowly making my way to making inappropriate and politically incorrect comments on Facebook.  However, the holidays snuck up on me and I took another break from posting.  I need to start posting pictures to this blog too.  That should spice it up a little, and perhaps encourage me to take pictures.

Since it's late, I am going to sleep, but know that I am here and still putting my thoughts together for the next post.

My First Top Ten

Since my posts have been more on the informative side then the fun side, I am adding in my first Top Ten List tonight.  Don't get me wrong, I love writing about my personal beliefs, but I am more then what I have shared so far.  I am also pretty opinionated about movies, music, and other pop culture topics.  We'll start off with something you find in just about every Facebook/MySpace postings, the TOP TEN SONGS on my iPod.

TOP TEN PLAYED SONGS ON MY iPOD

• As Is  - Ani DiFranco (78 plays)
• This song will always make me think of my ex- Brian.  I knew what he was all about, and I took him at face value. The song says it so much better then I could ever express the feelings.
• Ace of Spades - Motorhead (76 plays)
• Best line of the songs "You know I'm born to lose, and gambling's for fools,
  But that's the way I like it baby," That song just rocks and I love to sing it at the top of my lungs with the windows down on a long car ride.
• Little Sadie - Crooked Still (76 plays)
• I am actually surprised to see this song so high on my most played songs list.  Little Sadie is the only song I have on my iPod by Crooked Still, and it makes sense since it is a cover, but I love their sound.  I am going to find more of their music.  Fun, folksy, bluegrass sound with a freakin' fiddle and banjo.  
• Closer - Nine Inch Nails (75 plays)
• Best song to dance and *^%@ to ever.  The end.  Damn that song is sexy.
• Fall to Pieces - Velvet Revolver (72 plays)
• God dammit Scott Weiland, can you please get your shit together so you can continue to put out fucking amazing songs like Fall to Pieces?!  The song stirs so many emotions in me, usually when I hear Fall to Piece, I will play it a second time just so I can sing along louder.
• Infected - Bad Religion (72 plays)
• Another song that reminds me of an ex.  
• Swamp Song - Tool (72 plays)
• If I have been having a bad day, this song really lightens my mood, or actually it lets me scream out the frustration.  Especially this part of the song:
• This bog is thick and easy to get lost in
  cuz you're a stupid, belligerent fucker
  This bog is thick and easy to get lost in
  cuz you're a dumb ass belligerent fucker
• Drunken Angel - Lucinda Williams (69 plays)
• I just adore Lucinda Williams, and the song will never get old.  Her raspy voice is amazing.
• Fergalicious - Fergie (69 plays)
• Ya, that's in my top ten most played.  I admit and accept that I love to sing along with Fergie.  "I ain't easy, I ain't sleazy, I got reasons why I tease 'em, boys just come and go like seasons. Fergalicious."
• Stronger - Kanye West (68 plays)
• Unfair.  So unfair.  My 11th most played song at 67 plays is Tuesday Morning by The Pogues, but no, freakin' Kanye West beat them out.  Just proves my tastes continue to be ecclectic.  If you haven't heard the song, I recommend listening.  I don't care if it's overly produced, it's produced into art.  I love that song.

There you have it.  Next time I will go with something that is more topical and current, but this was a good introduction.

I Lag

Where was I?  Sheesh, a few days slip by and I start getting all angsty and I find myself watching The 700 Club.  WTF?  Who the hell am I?  It's not my fault, Zoe accidentally put it on this channel and then there was a segment about a book I must read.  Throw Them All Out: How Politicians and Their Friends Get Rich off Insider Stock Tips, Land Deals, and Cronyism That Would Send the Rest of Us to Prison by Peter Schweiger.  Looks pretty damn interesting, but I need to finish the two books I am reading before I start a new book.   

OK, let's get to the point:

Affirmative Action:  Ack, this one is so up and down it's hard to know where we stand as a country.  If I look at the meaning of Affirmative Action in the US it is giving minorities and women equal opportunities in employment, education or any area they have been "historically excluded".  While I agree with the intentions of Affirmative Action, over the years it really morphed into a type of 'reverse discrimination'.  Schools and employers were trying to meet a quota to show they were not discriminating, even if the better candidate happened to be a white male. 

In 1996 CA passed Prop 209 aka "California Civil Rights Initiative" which is what I would think Affirmative Action was supposed to be in the first place.  Prop 209 says "Hire or enroll someone if they meet your qualifications, but you can't look at race, ethnicity, religion, sex, or love of ferrets. "  Obviously it doesn't say that exactly, but you can look at the text of Prop 209 here.   Seriously, if I am up for a job and it's between me and a white guy who has 10 times the experience, then I wouldn't be upset to be turned down for the job.  But if I lose the job to someone with less experience but say, could be another ethnicity, then I will shout SHENANIGANS!

The fight in CA by supporters of Affirmative Action is still going.  Even in September there was a senate bill which would have cancelled out the portion of Prop 209 that affected college admissions.  It passes the CA Assembly and state senate, but Governor Jerry Brown vetoed the bill.  (I am NOT a fan of Governor Brown, but I must say, he made the right choice here).  Here's the text of SB 185 if you are interested.

There's not much more I can add here, just let's play fair.  I know it's taken years to get to where we are now, and I see things are still changing.  No need to give me any extra help to get a job.  If I am going to work somewhere I want to know I am wanted there, not needed to fill a quota. 

I guess that's all I have in me tonight.  I have a bunch of notes in a notebook where I have been writing down little reminders of things I want to share here.  That is going to come in quite handy when I finish up my Social/Fiscal statements.  :)

Words.

Yesterday was a long day of work, so I took the night off from thinking and typing.  Let me continue with the platform post.  Where was I?  Ah, yes, I had skipped Abortion and was moving on to Affirmative Action and then Capital Punishment (I will skip Environmental Issue for now).

Dammit.  I think I need to wait until tomorrow.  As I went to type my opinion on Affirmative Action I had to remind myself what it was.  Uh, duh!  Tylenol PM hit me faster then I expected. 

Platforms - Not Just a Shoe

I really need to find a better way to title things.  Either I am straight forward or I come up with something cheesy.  I will work on it.  Really, I want to share my opinion on common political platforms (basically a list of principals or actions a party or individual supports to appeal to the public) and list the topics I think should be front and center for our government/country to address.  As we know, each party, even the little guys like the Reform Party, have these items they talk about to prove why they are the correct person/party to vote for.  What do you always read about though?  Same-Sex Marriage, Health Care Reform, Taxes, and the Environment take up most of the columns in a news article.

Where do I stand?  It's difficult to give a black and white answer.  When you look at topics involving the fiscal health of our country, I tend to lean very far to the right (conservative), however in respect to social aspects I am no where near the far left (liberal) but I am no where near far right.  I fall somewhere in the middle of the political spectrum (moderate) regarding social politics.  Have you really ever broken down the political game between fiscal and social?  You might be surprised to find that you could differ like I do.  Sometimes it makes it hard to be accepted by the Right Wingers and to show that you might agree slightly with any conservative leader the Liberals poo poo you.  It's not easy being grey.

Regina's Platform Breakdown(the hot topics)
Social Politics
  Same-Sex Marriage
  Abortion
  Immigration (can be considered fiscal as well)
  Affirmative Action
  Environmental Issues (can be considered fiscal as well)
  Capital Punishment
  Drug Use/Legalization of Marijuana
  Gun Laws

Fiscal Politics
  Taxes (any and every and all)
  Health Care Reform (can be considered social as well)
  National Defense
  Energy (this is NOT to be confused with environmental)
  Economy
  Unemployment

Obviously there are far more topics that can be listed under each of those headers, but those are the ones that most Americans have an opinion about.  I am sharing my OPINION (not to be taken for what I see as fact, just what I believe to be as of today.  Opinions can change.) on each of these topics.  No in depth detail here.  If you don't know about Health Care Reform, you should probably look it up.  Here's where I stand.


Same-Sex Marriage - I bounce around on this one.  Call it a civil union so none of the religious people    who are against same-sex marriage can argue with the union.  Marriage is something that you can find in the bible, but it's been around even before the bible (or so I read in a book a few years ago and I don't remember what it was called).  I feel if two people are in love, then let them join their lives together just like any other couple that is in love.  If they fall out of love, they can get a divorce or annulment like any other couple that falls out of love.  A loving couple is a loving couple no matter if they are two men, a man and a woman, or two women.  Hell, I will even go so far as to say let the polygamists have their multiple wives.  It works for them, leave them alone.  (But do not allow them to marry underage girls, that's just wrong)

Immigration - If someone wants to make a better life for themselves in America, then let them!  But they MUST do it legally.  There is a wrong way and a right way, I cannot stand the amount of illegal immigrants that are here in our country.  I know that not all of them are taking advantage of our generous "system", and that many do live here below the poverty line.  But if there were fewer people draining our funds to help people in need, I bet a lot more people would be living far more comfortably here.  (I worked for a vineyard management company for several years.  Trust me, I saw a lot of shady shit go down, so I might be a little closed minded on this topic).  Do I have a surefire answer to the problem?  If I did, I would be somewhere in Sacramento knocking on the governor's door, but I don't have an answer.  I think I am still asking questions, before I can suggest an answer.

Holy crap my brain is about to explode.  Looks like this will be a multi-part post.  I will share more tomorrow when I am a little more refreshed.  The last one did a number on my brain.  Trying to express myself on a topic that really grates my nerves without sounding like an asshole is so not as easy as I thought it would be.

There are a million things to say and I can't freakin' say them!

Trying to decide what I would make my first post about caused much inner turmoil.  Do I talk about all those Occupy folks and how I wish it would just end, or perhaps reorganize to make an actual point?  No, because everyone is talking about that right now, and really, I am a little gun-shy after my one attempt to post something I felt was quite neutral on Facebook.  What about the discussing this years batch of GOP Ticket hopefuls?  Nah, I need to educate myself again.  I haven't watched a debate or read much to keep up with how this group will fare come the Primaries, so I have to pass right now (but I will say Newt is lookin' pretty dang good right now).

That's it!  Informed opinions and statements, something I rarely see on Facebook or in the general public, is something I take great pride in myself.  Most days I have to remind myself that many people get their news and political information from headlines, Wikipedia, the news crawl at the bottom of their favorite tv show, or from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.  All of which are great to give you a sense of what the hot topics of the day/month/year are, however, there is little provided which will educate you about the topic.  Most of the time, people fill in the blanks with things they thought they heard, or whatever they believe is to be true.  That's no way to become informed. 

So where do you go to find out more?  Never trust one source.  Liberals and conservatives will argue that the media leans left or right, truth is, it leans both ways.  It's difficult to find a newspaper or news station that doesn't base the information they are sharing on what may further their established beliefs.  So read, or listen to everything you can.  While I find myself on verge of vomiting after 10 minutes of listening to NPR, I still listen to some of what they say.  There have been times I find myself questioning past views after listening to a little NPR, which will then make me ask questions.Uh oh, slight derail...

QUESTIONS!  Don't forget to ask questions!  If you ask a question and you are answered with another question, chances are, whoever you asked doesn't have a clue how to answer.

Anyway, most of my point here is that you can't go to Fox News and expect them to give the latest story on the benefits for Leukemia patients use of marijuana and you most certainly cannot tune into NPR looking for how many rapes, robbery, injuries have been reported at any of the Occupy encampments.  So look everywhere, on both sides of the political spectrum to find your answers.  Sometimes, there isn't one answer, which is the beauty of our country.  We can agree to disagree.


Before I leave tonight, I want to answer that one guys question posed to me on FB several month ago after I shared some conservative views.  I decided to keep my mouth shut and just hide all of this persons posts, but they reignited my ire by commenting on some recent posts of mine.

Facebook Friend of many moons ago, who clearly never grew up: "Blah blah, anger, contempt, hostility, blah blah.  Are you a Nazi Jew now?"

(Obviously I replaced the beginning of that comment with my interpretation of their post.  The last part is the question I am answering below)

Me, someone who has changed and slightly matured: "I never thought of it that way, but I might be!  We did find out there was some Jewish relatives on my grandfathers side of the family and my grandma had a lot of German in her family.  I am literally a walking contradiction!"

Getting Started

I have had this blog for months with the thought that I could come here and share my opinions in a public forum.  There have been a thousand topics I wanted to share over the past few months, but I could never sit down and put my thoughts into an orderly and easily understandable story/statement.  But I am ready now.  No matter what my thoughts are, no matter how scrambled they come out, I am going to share them. 

Fear of offending the public with my anti-politically correct thoughts has stifled me from expressing my real thoughts and feelings. Once in a blue moon I will say something that vaguely represents what I want to truly say, and those people who are closest to me know what I mean, but the comments are generally overlooked and/or misinterpreted.  So, tonight I get started. 

Here is what I hope to achieve with this blog:

1. Share my thoughts and opinions on current topics, mostly local and national, but occasionally I will share a global view.
2. Come out to the public as a proud conservative.  I would usually say Republican, but I am finding it difficult to remove the religious influence of the current Republican Party.  That's not me and I believe there are several other Republican's who share my opinion.  Hopefully, there will be a movement within our party to remove church from state forever.  Sigh...
3. I will not bite my tongue.  I will say how I feel, no matter how ugly it may be when I put my thoughts out there.  There is potential for me to learn from myself, and perhaps open my mind to alternative ideas.
4. Random Top Ten Lists.  Could be about the best snacks, or best presidents, or the best rap song of the 80's.  I love a freakin' Top Ten List, and I will share one whenever the urge comes over me.

That's it for now.  Time to prepare my thoughts for a real post tomorrow.