"open your eyes to the millions of lies that they tell you every day"
Some things to think about:
1. The ideas put forth in the movie JFK (essentially, the assassination of President Kennedy and the shady circumstances surrounding everything that has to do with it). What really happened? Why was there such a cover up regarding so many aspects of it? Why were all the key people killed? What was the connection between the murders of the Kennedy brothers (Jack and Bobby)? Was it really a cout in our own country in the spirit of all those our government has organized in countless Latin American and Middle Eastern countries?
2. When our American culture looks at women of conservative/fundamentalist Islamic faith (i.e. those who wear veils to cover their faces) and hoots about how they cover and hide themselves from the world, we must ask ourselves what American society says when it indirectly dictates that women must wear make up and hide their true features from the world. Are women who wear little or no make up not shunned and looked down upon in a similar way that women in Islamic societies are when they don’t wear veils? Except that in our country, there isn’t violence and threats, but rather sneaky cowardly actions, such as not hiring someone for a job or talking about them behind their backs. Degrading them and thinking less of them for refusing to hide who they truly are beneath inch thick makeup.
These two things have been occupying my thoughts today. I know some of my friends feel annoyed by my liberalness and by my constant interest in politics/political ranting. I apologize to those of you who don’t want to hear it, but it is something I am passionate about. I don’t care if you don’t agree with me. You have your thoughts/beliefs/ways and I have mine. But don’t dismiss me because you think me too liberal. Don’ shut your eyes to things because they’re not pretty and because you want to keep living in a dream world. If you truly believe in something, and you see it as absolute truth, then welcome oppositions to it. Your faith in politics, religion, people, love, whatever should hold against all resistance. Those who refuse to see other ways…why? If you see your way as the true and right way then there should never be any other way for you. Unless you are wrong. In which case I believe it is better to have it proven wrong and find what you truly believe and stop living a lie, but that’s just me. I suppose this will seem weird to a lot of you, but oh well. This is my passion, and I shall declare it to the world.
YAY
Thanks Jill. Something fun!Leave your name and:1. I'll respond with something random I like about you.2. I'll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.3. I'll name something we should do together4. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me (or just me).5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.6. I'll leave you a quote that is somehow apropriate to you7. I'll ask you something that I've always wondered about you.8. If I do this for you, you must post this on your journal. You MUST!
I...
...Went to a discussion held by Amnesty International about the Israeli Palestinian conflict. Wrote an essay about my thoughts on it for religion. I felt intellectual. ...Registered for classes today. Am super exicted about my two history classes and my two English classes. Am apathetic about French. Bleh. ...Was sick this weekend but not so much now. ...Harry Potter in 2 days. Am so jolly....Had deep discussions regarding Harry Potter book Seven. Also made me feel intellectual and smart because of literary analysis and such. ...I want to take a class in Political Science at some point. I think I shall focus my extra hours (hours for graduation but not in my major field) on that if I like the class I take next fall. ...Am surely going to study in Europe (most likely London) next spring. Am very excited about this. ...Have began rereading parts of Heart of Darkness. I'm also getting into my Noam Chomsky book. I like them both. I keep discoverin new things in HOD and also things I had forgotten. It makes me happy. ...Like pondering. ...Hate statistics. No more math for me!...Am thirsty. I think I shall drink some water....Like my hair.
update woot
OK everyone, I know its been awhile. This past week was filled with lovely midterms. I had French yesterday, Religion test last Thursday and quizzes this Thursday (100 on the test, 100 on the group quiz, and I think an 80 on the individual), Western Civ Essay dur on Monday (our test was the previous Monday=95 bitches) and umm I don't remember what else. There was a quiz in film class. I failed. Literally. Like got a 67. Not good but I got a 94 on my essay so I think I can still pull an A in that class. I hate French. It is killing my 4.0. RAR. I'll try to be better about updating, for those of you who crave it (PAM). I'm in Southlake. It's fun. I saw Langford, Eyer, and Salyer yesterday. Fabulous as usual. I miss talking to them all, especially Langford, who, despite being a demon catepillar, is the most amazing person ever. I saw a picture of Mrs. Eyer on Ms. Eyer's desk and almost cried. I do miss that class. She was an amazing teacher indeed. Langford says hello to all (you know who you are). Had dinner with Matt, James and Dave at Olive Garden (yummy) and then we all hung out for awhile. Besides getting lost during their video game discussions, it was wicked fun. Indeed. The I went to Starbucks=delicious (fyi: when in town, the Starbucks on 1709 has the best Cafe Mochas out of the 3 in Southlake. The one in Town Square has the best atmosphere for hanging with friends and the Tom Thumb one the best atmostphere for studying and all have GREAT cofee but the 1709 chocolate to coffee ratio is simply divine). After Starbucks I met up with Jill and went to Corrie Melton's birthday party which was pretty cool. Watched Batman Begins and froze to death and then gathered around the fire. Felt kind of weird and old but had fun anyway. Ick I have a religion paper to write this weekend. Tonight Dave and I are chilling and then going to see MUSIC MAN!!! Matt and Allie are going too so maybe we'll chill with them or sit by them or something je ne sais pas. I'm kind of glad the football game is tonight because then we can get really good seats. woooo! Yeah. I don't know what else is new in my life since my political rant last week. Oh I had somethin to rant about the Carroll cheerleaders and their alcohol abuse (or their "non" alcohol abuse) but I shall save that for a later time because I am hungry and am going to eat breakfast.***EDIT***So here is my cheerleader rant:There was an article in the Star Telegram last week about Carroll cheerleaders being inspected for drinking alcohol at a football game before they performed. Obviously, the girls who we sober were upset because they all had to perform tumbling and gymnastics stuff, and then the rest of the school was upset because none of them got in trouble (they were all seniors and some were the captains and two had fathers on the school board and such). Now, I think there is nothing wrong with a little drinking. Just so long as people are safe (relatively) and responsible. Drinking in the bathroom at a football game is not being responsible. Drinking and then driving is not responsible. Drinking and then taking part in cheerleading stunts is not responsible. Now this was just generally not a good situation. Pretty much people being stupid and making bad decisions. But what’s worse is, when the police came over, they decided the girls were completely sober. They did not give them a breathalyzer or any other form of alcohol test but rather just talked to them and decided that they were completely sober (because clearly, with them being underage, if the cops had suspected they had been drinking at all they would have been obligated to do something). This kind of bugged me because according to witnesses, the girls were clearly drunk/tipsy, but whatever. This was now, however, the thing that bugged me most. One parent said, "Performing like that in front of the entire city of Southlake is unacceptable. They can make whatever choices they're going to make on their own time, but don't do it in a Carroll High School uniform." OK, now, call me crazy, but what kind of response is this? I mean, nothing about how dangerous and irresponsible it was for the girls to do this and put their teammates in danger and to break the law and all that stuff. No. The parents are worried about the image of Southlake and how the girls acting like this will effect it. Are you freaking kidding me? And even better, no on seems to think that there’s something drastically wrong with this response. And this isn’t just one parent. Yes, one parent said that to the paper people, but this is the real problem with Southlake. It’s this type of reaction to situations like this that causes so many problems in this town. Too many parents concerned with the football team and the school’s image and the economics of that situation (number one brand selling in that nation and a bad image would decrease sales, etc.) and don’t even care about the physical and psychological causes and effects of these actions. Seriously. This town needs to get its priorities in order.
the us government and other such idiot things
OK. Who is furious? Oh yes, that would be me. I was reading this article on Truthout entitled "House Delays Vote on Terror Suspect Treatment" about how, well, the House is delaying voting on this terror bill because it will probably embarass the White House. Some highlights:"House Democrats had planned to offer a motion this week to endorse language in a military spending bill, written by Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, that would prohibit abusive treatment of terror suspects. The motion would instruct House negotiators to adopt Mr. McCain's precise language, which the Senate approved last month, 90 to 9. The White House has threatened to veto any bill containing the provision, saying it would restrict the president's ability to fight terrorism and protect the country"So apparently our so called "moral and Christian" President believes that it is moral to use cruel and unusual punishment and torture methods on people suspected of being terrorists or people who once were terrorists or people who look liek terrorists or people who may possibly know something regarding terrorism. Now I don't believe terrorism is right and I think terrorist are really bad people. But the people our government is detaining and toturing are not terrorists. We have caught like, no one. And those we have caught (Saddaam Hussein for example) were bad people yes, but not directly linked to terrorist attacks on the US in any way. Everyone deserves equal treatment in prisons and detainment camps. This includes ours and everywhere else in the world. It is also immoral to send our prisoners to the Israelis to be tortured by them (I have yet to decide if it's worse to for the US to endorse torture by personally performing it or by having the Israelis and Egyptians do it because those people are pretty damn cruel. I mean torture is overall cruel and evil and bad, but they're like really really bad.) This pisses me off that people believe that we need torture to fight torture. You don't fight drugs by using drugs. This is a stupid way to combat terror because we become objects of it and simply spread it. And, of course, it is morally wrong. "The White House, in negotiations led by Mr. Cheney, is insisting that the Central Intelligence Agency be exempted from the proposed ban." Oh perfect. Way to completely defeat the purpose of the ban you dipshits. Loopholes piss me off. How can anyone support this? To give the CIA no boundaries regarding this is ridiculous. If anything, they're one of the only agencies that needs the ban. They're the ones this was written for because they're the ones who are seeing to it that prisoners and "terrorists" are tortured into giving information, which they don't even know the majority of the time. "Democrats on Thursday were quick to accuse Mr. Hastert, a close friend and political ally of Mr. Cheney, of taking steps to postpone a vote that would embarrass the vice president at a time when his former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr., is under indictment in the CIA leak case.
"At a time when we should be protecting American service men and women from torture and improving our sullied international reputation, the majority in the House is more interested in protecting the vice president and this administration from embarrassment," said Representative Ellen O. Tauscher, a California Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. "Now maybe I'm just too idealistic, but shouldn't we be focusing on having a moral government and getting out the war? Yes we should protect our troops (we don't torture others and set a good example and: others don't torture us; our troops don't become the objects of hate crimes against the US government; terror attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan etc. lessen perhaps; etc. etc.) but I mean...why the fuck won't anyone address the moral ambiguity surrounding this situatiomn? Why can't Congress just come out and say "we're passing this because we believe torture is wrong etc.", because McCain wrote this bill and that's why he wrote it. He truly believes torture was wrong, I mean he was tortured in Vietnam. But no, they need some excuse to pass a moral bill/add some moral addition to another bill. But they have to use this excuse because that way when the White House vetoes this bill they can say "we're vetoing this bill because we don't think this is really the best way to ________(insert bullshit excuse here such as "protect our troops" or "lie to our people" or "promote terror" or "screw other countries over hahahahahaha")." IT MAKES ME FURIOUS!!! "The lawmakers said that they strongly endorsed Mr. Bush's efforts to defeat terrorism, but that the McCain provision would aid American troops in the field without interfering with presidential prerogatives. "We believe the anti-torture provisions are vital to protecting American service members in the field both now and in the future," they wrote on Oct. 27."Well no shit Sherlock. We'll just leave the moral part out so as not to insult anyone on the touchy subject of physically and psychologically torturing another human being. Bastards. But besides not addressing that point, why would anyone oppose an anti-torture bill when our government "doesn't use torture anyway?" hmmmmmmmm??????? Why I wonder. Oh right, because IT DOES USE TORTURE AND THEN LIES ABOUT IT!!!!!!"Last month, Mr. Cheney and the CIA director, Porter J. Goss, urged Mr. McCain to support an exemption for the agency, arguing that the president needed maximum flexibility in dealing with global terrorism." WILL SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME HOW IN THE WORLD ADVOCATING TORTURE HELPS GET RID OF TERRORISM?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!"Mr. McCain rejected the proposed exemption, which stated that the measure "shall not apply with respect to clandestine counterterrorism operations conducted abroad, with respect to terrorists who are not citizens of the United States, that are carried out by an element of the United States government other than the Department of Defense and are consistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States and treaties to which the United States is a party, if the president determines that such operations are vital to the protection of the United States or its citizens from terrorist attack." "Well of course he rejected it. Because it's WRONG! Torture is wrong. Terrorism is wrong. People do not deserve to be tortured, no matter what they know or what they may know or even what they've done. Yes they broke the law and yes they hurt others or maybe they know information about it, but stooping to their level makes us nothing more than them. Accomplises in global terror. By supporting torture, we support terror because torture is terror, terror is torture, they are one in the same and there is no separating them. It makes me so mad that people can't see there is no distinction between them or that torturing and hurting (and killing, because war is wrong too) is morally wrong. I get so angry that people would ever support this sort of behavior. Our government (and our corporations and such things) have serious moral issues that need to be dealt with. And it's not just Bush. It's the whole White House and many parts of Congress. Not normally the Democrats, but even they are often just as bad as the Republicans with their pussy footing and refusal to address "sensitive issues" which are the only issues that ever truly need to be addressed.For those of you who read this whole thing, thank you. For those of you who didn't, you should at least read the article.http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110405A.shtml
my feet are special and therefore this post is named after them
So I'm bad about updating. Sorry. But nothing interesting has happened. I mean it's life. What do you expect? Not that life isn't interesting, but not in the way that anyone cares to hear about. That and I haven't been having any deep or provoking thoughts. Well not since the Ashlee Simpson blog. Which was, let's face it, pure unaldultrated genius. Midterms this week and last week. So far I've had French and Western Civ. Tomorrow is Religion and Stat is on Monday. And my WC midterm essay is also due on Monday. Yippee. Should be a fun fun weekend. On the brightside, I'm not going to New Orleans this weekend (long story; Shannon and Chloe are driving down with Chloe's boyfriend) which means plenty of time for me to be studious on Sunday. And Friday yay. Can you tell I'm excited? I'm shivering with antici....pation! (Rocky Horror allusion, snaps for me!). Not really. But Alex and I are going to Sam Moon this weekend and lunching in Dallas (YUM) and on Tuesday I'm getting my hair cut with Lizzie the best hair dresser in the world (everyone who can get your hair cut by her at Nicole Day Spa, she is a genius I say). Let's just say that my hair will be the most awesome thing ever. And I will find a way to get a picture on here. Somehow. And...I forgot. Oh I went to the rec center today and ran a lot and then did ab work. And somehow developed a blister on my foot. Not on my heel or on my toe, someplace normal and convenient but right on the inner edge of the arch of my left foot. Not far enough in so that I don't step on it but far enough over to where its on the nice soft middle of the foot skin that HURTS. What's worse? It's like a water blister but has no water=most painful type of blister. Evil. I know you all realy wanted to hear about my feet. Ha ha ha. I'm going to try and read some of Mr. Camus' political essays, get my laundry, shower, then back into the religion studying, dinner/studying with Leslie, study group at 9 (which I will shoot someone at if it ends up like last time) and then bed. Sleeeeeeeeeep. Yesssss. So wonderful. That's all for now. If I think of something smartish I'll post it. Until then.
