Political Opinions

I read about Hank Williams, Jr. spouting off again about saying hateful things about the President of the United States. While I am not surprised, I was offended. The last time Hank ran his mouth about the President, he lost his Monday night football gig. I guess he figures he doesn’t have much to lose now so he just let the hateful, venomous words spew. He said that the President was a Muslim who hated farmers and America and that “we” hated him. Well, this part of “we” does not hate the President. I have never hated any of our Presidents even when I didn’t agree with them. And there have been a few in my lifetime that I haven’t always agreed with. Actually, there was one in the last decade who made me question his thinking a lot. But I never hated him. I simply hated some of the choices he made for our country.

But what gets me is why do celebrities think their opinions really matter to me? And why do they bring up such things as religion? Are they being fed this crap by the political parties in hopes that it will influence other Americans? I certainly hope not. And I also hope that other Americans aren’t dumb enough to listen to these opinions. Hopefully they have minds of their own and can think for themselves.

Listen to what the POLITICIANS are saying and not what the celebrities are saying. They’re the ones that are going to be making the decisions that affect your life. In some cases, I suppose their religion could play a role in their decisions. Some of them just have some warped thinking. For instance I read that one politician recently stated that rape victims couldn’t get pregnant if it was really rape. Hmmmm…And I’d like to know where the hell he got this “scientific” knowledge. Of course once this got leaked to the press he apologized and said he misspoke. The funny thing is, once it is said it is a little too late. It’s already out there. Another politician who is running said he wasn’t concerned about the very poor. Sorry, poor people, you’re screwed! You have been for years and you will continue to be. Guess you’re used to it, huh?

Please don’t just listen to political parties. Listen to the politicians. While they may be affiliated with a specific party, they are individuals.  The party may have some influence. But the bottom line is that the individual will be making choices. Listen to them so you can decide who you want to make choices for you.

(For the record, it grieves me that Hank Williams, Jr. has said something like this. I have always loved his music. I considered myself a fan. It just really saddened and angered me to hear about this.)

Related articles

• Hank Williams Jr. at Iowa State Fair: We’ve got a Muslim President who hates farming, hates the military, hates the U.S. and we hate him! (ktrh.com)
• Hank Williams Jr.: Obama a ‘Muslim president who hates farming, hates the military, hates the US and we hate him!’ (thegrio.com)
• Hank Williams Jr. on Obama: ‘We’ve got a Muslim president…and we hate him’ (popwatch.ew.com)
• Hank Williams Jr. bashes Obama at the fair (nashvillegab.com)
• Hank Williams Jr: Obama a Muslim, ‘We Hate Him’ – Country scion again rips into president (tribuneofthepeople.com)

Some Reasons I DO NOT Like Newt

My dislike of Newt Gingrich is not a recent thing. No. I disliked him a long time ago in the days of the Clinton Administration. Why? He was constantly screaming or crying about something. He was always pointing out flaws in the Clinton White House but didn’t want to accept any blame for his own. He wanted accolades for the first balanced budget in 30 years. Yes, he and Bill Clinton and many others worked on creating that balanced budget. It was truly a historical moment.

Newt and Kenneth Starr also kept looking for everything they could to say ugly about the Clintons. I’m not saying that Bill Clinton’s presidency was perfect. Not at all. But I have never seen such a public scrutiny by the Speaker of the House and his minions. I think that if Newt thinks he is going to be the poster boy for family values that he should have thought about that before divorcing twice and marrying successively younger women. And by the way, didn’t he cheat, too? Hmmm…didn’t he talk about how terrible Bill Clinton was for doing that same thing? Pot, this is kettle and I’m calling you black!

I think we should also remember that, yes, Newt Gingrich brought both sides of the political aisle together years ago. How? When ethics charges were brought up against him. Republicans and Democrats voted to reprimand him. This was the first time in the history of this nation that the Speaker of the House was reprimanded for ethics violations.

Don’t forget that he also shut the government down December 16, 1995 to January 6, 1996, for a total of 28 days. I bring this up because so many Republicans were raising hell when there was the possibility of the SAME thing happening during the Obama administration. If shutting down the government is such a terrible thing, it should have been then as well. People had families to take care of then, too. Why is Newt trying to act like he was such a bad-ass and yet he and others were so condemning to President Obama? Again, pot, this is kettle…

Now for some current things. His issues and his mudslinging. Did you know that he wants to reward girls for graduating high school a virgin? There are a few things that bother me about this. First, how are we going to determine if she is a virgin? Are we going to take her word for it? If so, that is stupid. What teenage girl is going to tell the truth on that one?! Second, what kind of reward are we talking about? Third, isn’t this a little sexist? Are we just offering this incentive to girls? What about boys? Again, how are we going to decide if he is a virgin? That whole trust issue is naïve and stupid. Fourth, what if the girl had been raped? Are we going to actually punish a girl for that? So all in all I hope others can see the stupidity of this issue.

I understand that in politics there will be mud-slinging. There always is. But I would like to see a politician actually have the courage to say what their beliefs are and how they plan to do it. Yeah, yeah, Newt and a former president worked together to balance the budget years ago. How do you plan to do it again? Do you see the problem with health care? Do you see that there are Americans that have no health care coverage that are in dire need of it? Do you see that Americans do not want to hear your mud-slinging? What are your thoughts on education? Are you going to do something about the current state of our educational system instead of just try to pawn kids off on different schools? There should be some educational reform instead of just shifting kids from here to there! The majority of parents do not have time or money to transport kids to different schools! Think about that and keep kids in the schools they are districted for and make the teachers teach at an acceptable level! Dumbing down the system or moving kids is not an option.

Newt Gingrich likes to bring up old catch phrases such as flip-flopping and family values. I think he fits those phrases very well. He pulls them out when they suit his needs. I’m sorry but that doesn’t work for me. I am not anti-Republican but I am not a Newt Gingrich fan and will not vote for him. I hope people will not forget his past record.

Related articles

• Newt not (steveprestegard.com)
• Newt Gingrich attacks Mitt Romney on immigration, fights off infidelity question and laughs at idea of Romney as running mate (miamiherald.typepad.com)

Holiday Hoopla

I am getting ready for holiday hoopla. For me holidays are just another day. I try to view them that way anyway. I have tried for years to get into them. It’s hard when you’re alone or you feel alone. I will thankfully sleep all day long and then just work that night as if it is another night. Work will provide my “holiday meal” and that will be that.

But with Thanksgiving at the door, next comes Christmas. That one is the one that makes my heart hurt. I hope that we have no snow that day and I can just come home for 2 days and sleep. I get off on Christmas morning at 7am and hope that I can just come home and sleep through it. When you’re alone it is so hard. People don’t get it. They’re so happy and get all these presents and you just want to hide. You don’t want to tell them that you don’t want to hear about their fabulous day, but you really don’t want to hear about it. You don’t want to hear about their fabulous presents because you didn’t get anything. It is just a hard day that people with no family get. I am trying to prepare myself now for it. But how do you prepare yourself for such a bad feeling? I wish I could truly get myself ready for it, but there is no real prep. You just hold on and try to remember to breathe.

So if I don’t get into the whole holiday spirit thing, please don’t try to force it. It is what it is. I have learned that and have to just do my best to survive it.

Freedom of Speech Is Not Freedom to Disrespect

I am all for freedom of speech. But I think a lot of times that many people take advantage of this freedom. Disagreeing with something does not give you the right to be disrespectful. Maybe more should follow the old adage of you draw more flies with honey. When you speak negatively to or about someone or something else, you are already setting yourself up for adversity. But if you go at it with inflammatory statements, you’ve really stepped in it.

This has been on my mind because the last couple of weeks I have been seeing this quite a bit. I really started paying attention to what people were saying and how they were saying it. Again, I was shocked and probably shouldn’t have been. I can’t blame it on me being Southern and the other people not being from the South. No, they were from the South. And they were quite rude and abrasive and hateful. Some things were personal attacks. Some were politically charged. Some happened in a workplace environment.

Ok, the personal attacks I saw were quite vicious. I tried to speak up about it but you can’t argue with stupid. Sometimes  you have to just ignore and move on.

The politically charged attacks were eye-opening. As I have stated in previous posts, I am neither Republican nor Democrat. I don’t care what party you are. But what I do care about is how you present your feelings. When you start name-calling and bashing, you are a disgrace to whatever party you are affiliated with. If you can’t have a civilized conversation or state an idea or opinion without the negativity or mud-slinging then you need to just shut your mouth or fingers (internet). When you behave in that manner you reinforce all the negative stereotypes about that party. If you want your message heard, do it in a manner that is not offensive or inflammatory. When you are spouting off slurs and insults, you make more people tune out than tune in. If that was your agenda, fine. But if you wanted someone to hear you or understand your point of view then you should have approached them in a kinder manner. Again, you draw more flies with honey.

The workplace situation was something I walked in on. I heard a supervisor speaking to an employee. It was a civil conversation from the supervisor’s side but suddenly the employee snapped at her. I was shocked. I was raised that you respect your supervisors. You may not agree with them and that is fine. If you don’t, approach them by trying to explain yourself respectfully. But the second you open your mouth with outright insubordination, you have crossed the line. Frankly, I hope that employee got written up. Whether they were right or wrong on the other matter is not the issue. It’s how they addressed it. Show some respect.

The bottom line for me is that I am tired of people using their freedom of speech as an excuse to be completely disrespectful. There are perfectly acceptable ways to disagree. More should try it.