Liberality

One of my favorite things is the Dictionary.com app on my iPhone. If only for the word of the day. Seeing as it’s the holiday season I figured I’d give you all my own word of the day. And that word is disillusioned.

Now I could go into my completely personal reasons for being disillusioned with Christmas and the holiday season, but I doubt any of you wants to hear about the 20 year old guy finding out there is no Santa. Instead I think I’m going to focus on the things that any one of us could see just by walking to the nearest retail establishment. As I’ve mentioned before my own religious education is somewhat lackluster, but let’s be completely honest. This time of year is now less about religion than buying a Big Mac is.

Ostensibly the Christmas season is about being giving and charitable. Perhaps remembering those less fortunate and how lucky we are. Just realize for a moment that with a job earning just $22,000 a year you would be in the top 5% of wage earners in the world. Now I’m sure you’re all wondering exactly what this has to do with the holiday season. Maybe some of you have realized my point already and are feeling pretty bad. In any case I’ll spell it out for you.

Every year around Christmas people flock to stores like moths to a porch light, kids to a candy store, tweens to the newest Justin Bieber CD, angsty teen girls to the next Twilight movie. Get the picture? Granted when I was young Christmas was all about which cool toy “Santa” was going to bring me. I realize that in our youth this particular holiday is all about the tangible gifts, but I’m not sure everyone actually grows up. Sure it’s great to give people things. It feels good doing something nice for someone, the problem is the incessant focus on useless crap.

People get trampled, hurt, shot with bb guns, spit on, sworn at, and a whole myriad of other things while attempting to get the cheapest price on the cheap crap they want to give to someone. Where’s the holiday spirit? “I want to do good things, but if you’re not on my shopping list I’ll run you over.” Yeah that sounds about right. So as you’re stepping on old lady’s this year, and cursing at the investment banker with graying hair as they try to get that laptop for little Timmy just remember what this time of year is truly about. It’s not about the shiny wrapped gifts, or the great doorbuster sales. It’s all about the feeling. All about the people around you that truly make your life something special. Never forget.

Now in closing for those of you wondering “hey, what’s the perfect gift for a blogger such as Spin_Doctor?”. Easy answer my friends. Give! Give your time, your money, your resources. Whatever you can spare to a cause that you deem worthy. Because giving something of yourself to make this world a better place is the greatest gift anyone could ask for.

Happy holidays everyone!

So it’s been a while since I last updated so this one will probably be short and not very well written. For that I apologize. I might try harder next time.

I will preface this by saying I am not a psychologist and I have a near zero understanding of the more intricate workings of the human mind. That being said let’s continue.

I was watching my brother play Call of Duty online the other day. He was complaining about the controller he was using. Turns out he was using one of my old ones because he was having his usual controller modified. I found this a rather curious notion. Here was someone that actively challenges others to try and beat his “skill” in a video game, which is pathetic in it’s own way, but he then has to cheat to create this so-called “skill”.

I ask you, reader, a very simple question. Would you prefer to work for everything you have, or would you be alright with cheating your way through? Be it school, work, or even a video game. Would you honestly be able to look another person in the eye, one who had given it his/her all to get to the position when you had cheated your way there, and count yourself as an equal? How screwed up does your value system have to be for that to be true?

Every day you’ll encounter someone that just expects something to be given to them for little to no work. Where did this sense of entitlement come from? What happened to putting in the work to become truly good at something. Learn all the material for the test, finish the entire project, or for the video game reference work on your reaction time.

To put a more global perspective on it why are we content to allow other countries to continue to outpace us in so many aspects. Our nation is afloat largely due to loans from nations we’re assuming will never be in a position to collect, and should the world’s oil supply ever dwindle to perilously low levels we will, quite literally, be caught with our pants around our ankles. Why not do the work now. Sure there’s no huge problem right now and we’re just getting by. Ladies and gentlemen this country was not founded by men who “just got by”.

Collectively we need to shake ourselves and realize that WE need to put the work in. Nothing is going to fall in our laps. Let’s follow in the footsteps of the great men and women that came before us and MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN!

For the record I am wearing pants.

Many moons ago I wrote a paper titled “Turn Inward”. The basic idea of the paper was to define what makes you ‘you’ before you worried about what anyone else thought, and surround yourself with people that shared your view of the world.

Today I play on telling you all I’ve lied. Most of you can stop there. That’s all you need. To those of you who have found your interest piqued I shall press on.

Why are we so convinced that we want to be around people that have the same desires, the same goals, the same dreams as we do? Sure the idea of bonding with someone that has similar goals in life seems like a great idea, but where’s the fun in that?

To this writer the most interesting thing about a person is not what drives them, but simply are they driven towards something? A person that is truly worth getting to know in life is not someone that shares your exact passion, but just someone that has a passion. People who are truly matched have very different goals, and are skilled in different areas. The difference between these people, and the ones that can’t come to understand each other is both of these individuals share an appreciation for the drive of the other. They find the other person interesting.

I believe that what people forget many, many times when choosing friends and so forth is that they’re choosing people that will better them through expanding their horizons, giving them new viewpoints, and not telling them what they want to hear. We’re not out to select extensions of co-workers or people for our sewing circles.

To bring it all together don’t pigeonhole yourself. It’s ok to have an identity, but don’t settle with it simply because it works. A wise man once said life should be malleable and progressive. Not just as a people, but especially as individual person. That means you. In closing, turn inward, but remember that while water from a pond knows who it is, the water in the river eventually makes it to the ocean.

Think about it.

With spring on the horizon, not to mention mid-term elections it’s time to take a look back at the last decade. What has defined this country more than anything else (recession notwithstanding)? The simple answer is terror.

But who exactly is providing the bulk of that terror? One might be tempted to say the obvious like Osama Bin Laden, or even Saddam Hussein. You might have a point, but you wouldn’t be quite right. The question asked was who provided the bulk of the terror. The simple answer is the media.

September 11th 2001 was a horrible day indeed. There is no arguing that point. The fact of the matter is this one day was used to influence politics and foreign policy for the next seven years. Even I was behind President Bush when he gave that rousing speech at what we refer to today as “Ground Zero”. That feeling of support waned for me shortly thereafter. Remember how Osama Bin Laden was the bad guy. The “evil-doer”. When our enemy had a legitimate face and a legitimate connection to the attacks on our fellow countrymen? Those were the good old days.

Suddenly Iraq was on the horizon. The reported weapons of mass destruction were going to rain down death upon us all. Boo! Scary! Why hadn’t the weapons inspectors found them then? In fact didn’t Hans Blix himself say there was no evidence of any of this? Thought so. In fact look what a USA Today article had to say:

No evidence was found to suggest Iraq possessed chemical or biological weapons. U.N. officials believe the weapons were destroyed by U.N. inspectors or Iraqi officials in the years after the 1991 Gulf War.

Go figure. Anyway that doesn’t matter. Let’s keep on the WMD train, and raise the terror level. In fact since we’ve yet to find the mastermind behind the attacks that shattered so many lives let’s invent a connection between him and Iraq. Cement American support for what would amount to absolutely nothing.

So we go into Iraq under all these false pretenses. And what do you know. No weapons. Well then. Let’s call it Operation Iraqi Freedom. Seems humanitarian right? Of course. Go us!

Fast forward to something more recent. The health bill. It’s going to turn us into a socialist country. Death to free enterprise, goodbye capitalism. Who’s saying this? Look no further than FOX news. Is it going to do this? Is the public option even in the bill any longer? No. So where do people get these crazy ideas? From the right wing news media hell bent on keeping you from knowing the TRUTH. It’s quite ridiculous.

As a nation of responsible citizens we need to start making our own assumptions rather than jumping on the fear bandwagon. This is a nation founded on progressive values that we must not lose sight of even when the world seems it’s darkest. Let’s live the dream.

Unless you enjoy not actually knowing anything. I won’t even touch the obvious farce that is their “(un)fair and (un)balanced” promise. It makes me laugh too hard to think about.

Let’s start off with the easiest thing here. Now I have nearly no respect for Alan Colmes, but at least he knows his history. on February 21, 1972 then President Richard Nixon met with Mao Zedong. There are pictures to prove this. Screw it I’ll save you the trouble:

Bill-o claimed it wasn’t Mao but Chinese Prime Minister Zhou Enlai. It wasn’t. Bill you’re a moron. After your Malmedy fuck up and Jessica Alba making you look like a dunce one would think maybe you’d stop correcting people’s history knowledge. Clearly a first grader knows more than you. Let’s see how the “no” spin zone spins that one.

Doubt my claim? Here’s a profile shot of Zhou Enlai for you to compare:

Profile Shot of Zhou Enlai

Now my favorite target. Sean “Your Mother” Hannity. Sean Hannity volunteered to be waterboarded because it appears he’s smarter than everyone. Waterboarding is torture Mr. Hannity. It’s not something to joke about. Why on earth would someone say something so unbelievably stupid. It boggles the mind. I can only assume his argument is that waterboarding isn’t torture. Yeah it is folks, and I’m not the one saying it. I’ll let the people that know what they’re talking about explain it to you:

“Major General Scott Black, U.S. Army Judge Advocate General, Major General Jack Rives, U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General, Rear Admiral Bruce MacDonald, U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General, and Brigadier Gen. Kevin Sandkuhler, Staff Judge Advocate to the Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, unanimously and unambiguously agreed that such conduct is inhumane and illegal and would constitute a violation of international law, to include Common Article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions.”

(link to the full letter written to Senate Chairman Patrick J. Leahy))

It’s torture. FOX is ridiculous. Republicans are unbelievable. Thank you Mr. Olbermann for calling Mr. Hannity out. We need more people like you.

I just can’t take any more of this. If it was an isolated incident, or every other time they pulled crap like this they apologized and corrected it I’d be alright with it. That’s not what they do and it saddens me greatly.

FOX. Go to hell. Mr. Murdoch I hope you rot.