Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Aaaaaand... We're Back!

Yes, I'm back. And we'll return to our regular dating/relationships/male-female dynamic subject matter tomorrow, but since I've already been off-topic for a few days, I'm going to take this opportunity to say something even further off-topic.

I'm not a political blogger, and this is not a political blog. I don't ever want it to be. I like the dating stuff, I'm better at writing about it, and it's a hell of a lot more entertaining. If you've known me in the real world for any significant amount of time, however, you know that I'm very interested in the current state of the world. The power dynamics fascinate me, and I feel it's our duty as responsible, intelligent citizens to stay well-informed. We, the people, are the most significant piece in the American system of checks and balances, and if we don't know what's going on, we can't responsibly execute that role.

My belief structure is hard to classify politically. I'm pretty liberal in some areas, relatively conservative in others, and right down the middle on the rest of it. I'm proudly independent, because I prefer to weigh each individual decision on its own merits over blindly siding with one group or another. And honestly? Right now, I'm not particularly happy with anybody.

What I am is scared. Terrified, even. And I have been for a few years now. I believe we're in the midst of one of the darkest periods American history will ever see. When you compare what America stands for with what it's doing at the moment, the two have never been farther apart. And when you compare recent events in America with past historical examples of similar occurrences elsewhere, the outlook is bleak. I'm not going to go into detail here, because someone else has said it much better than I ever could, but there's a link to that at the end of this post.

So where are the people? Well, for the most part (and I hope most of my readers are more educated than this), they're busy voting for Sanjaya or getting the latest scoop on Britney/Anna Nichole/Paris/whoever the latest bimbo of the week is. They're not paying attention, and that's dangerous. The less we keep an eye on our leadership, the more they can get away with (and honestly, our system is structured in a way that attracts the power-hungry while discouraging those with altruistic motives). It's misdirection. I mean, the connection between Fox News and the party line is pretty blatant, but they're not the only ones distracting us. The Gonzalez hearing yesterday got one day of real news time, to be kicked off the headlines today by Rosie's departure from The View. Anna Nichole's death was a three week affair, but how much have you heard about the disinformation surrounding Pat Tillman's? As tragic (and close-to-home personally) as the Virginia Tech incident was, how were those 33 young american deaths more significant than the 3,335 (and counting) we've lost in Iraq, which have become nothing more than a simple infographic sidenote in the papers?

We are not doing our jobs. And if Americans as a whole fail to properly oversee the system and hold people accountable when necessary, bad things will happen. You know, when someone tells you to "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain," that's exactly where you should be looking.

Naomi Wolf describes my fears in a well researched, thought-out, and thought provoking editorial here.



On a lighter note...

American Blogstand is shaping up to be the must-see drunken blogger show of the century, in addition to being I-66's going away party as host. Be there. I might even sing for ya.

And yes, tomorrow, we'll be back to the fun stuff.

16 comments:

Belle said...

Glad to see you're back.

I'm with you on the current situation. Scared. And pissed at Americans (myself included) for paying less attention than we should and doing less than we should to make this country live the ideals it touts.

Thanks for the link to Wolf's thoughts.

Anonymous said...

When Bush uses fearmongering to incite political action, it's fearmongering. When the Huffington Post does it, it's a public service. How 'bout that?

minijonb said...

Naomi Wolf is a hottie... oh, wait, were you looking for serious discussion? Sorry about that.

=;-)

Anonymous said...

I think you (and Ms. Wolf) raised some really important points. The freedoms we enjoy - the very freedoms which allow us to write our blogs and comment on others, are deserving of the efforts required to maintain them.

Thank you!

Anonymous said...

Great post and very interesting topic. So sad I'll be missing Happy Hour. :(

globalchameleon said...

Excellent article - thanks for posting!

inowpronounceyou said...

I'll sing Tommy TuTone if you'll sing something....and Dagny is going to sing I'm a Barbie Girl as an Homage to Blondes everywhere.

Anonymous said...

"Terrified"? That's rather pessimistic isn't it?

Humans are resourceful creatures. And eventually we do learn from mistakes (sometimes later than we should).

If you want to see something really terrifying, watch the "Journey's with George" show that's been airing lately on MSNBC (written/directed by none other than Nancy Pelosi's daughter, Alexandra). If that show had been aired prior to the last election, it's difficult to imagine how different things would be today. It really drives the point of how an utter buffoon is running the country.

Anonymous said...

And for every scary buffoon/egomaniac with too much power for there own good, there are some people that will out and out surprise you: "April 25 - California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger warned Wednesday that the state would SUE the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) if it fails to act on a request to reduce emissions."

Unknown said...

welcome back sir!

jess said...

Regarding deaths in Iraq vs. deaths here last week. The irony of this just got to me:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6583313,00.html

And made me more humble at the same time...

LMNt said...

Belle -- Glad you liked it. :-)

Anon -- If you want to shed your anonymity and send me an email, I'd be happy to engage in a discussion off the blog. That said, here's the short version:

This is why it's extremely important that we don't believe everything we see/hear/read, and we seek external verification/confirmation of the "facts." Telling the truth, no matter how scary, to motivate people to act is quite different from distorting or disregarding it altogether to further your agenda through fear. The source to me is irrelevant. It's the external confirmation that dictates what I believe and what I don't.

There is no evidence from outside the Bush administration that Saddam had weapons of mass distruction, Al Queda has sleeper cells throughout the US, or putting people with different viewpoints in power will make us "less safe". On the other hand, there is a mountain of verification from legitimate sources that the president has unilateral power to declare anyone an "enemy combatant" and hold them indefinitely in prisons that operate outside the rule of our justice system, that the CIA is listening to our phone calls, that anti-war or anti-Bush protesters keep ending up on the terrorist watch list for some reason, and all of the other topics discussed in the article.

I'm not a whackjob or a radical, I just pay attention to the news, and I get it from several different legitimate sources, as I believe we all should.

MiniJonB -- Isn't she? No need to apologize.

Dagny -- Well said.

Kassy -- WHAT?!?!?!!! You have to come! [pouts]

GlobalChameleon -- My pleasure. Glad you liked it.

INPY -- I'm thinking *old school* Bon Jovi... maybe "Runaway". Thoughts?

Anon -- (I'm assuming these two are both the same anon, right?) In this particular department, I'm very pessimistic. I just don't think the average middle American will pay attention before it's too late, and there's not enough of us who are to change things without mass support. And yes, he is an idiot, but he's an idiot with some very smart people advising him. I think we're probably run more by committee than by W. At least, I hope so.

MM -- Thankya!

Jess -- Thanks for the link. That is pretty ironic, huh?

Anonymous said...

Welcome back. I need my daily fix of LMNt, and I was barely surviving, but now I don't have to worry about that anymore!

Anonymous said...

God-willing, for every Paris/Britney/Anna Nicole out there there will be a Lilli Allen to kick things up a notch.

roosh said...

welcome back :)

Anonymous said...

I just bought the Lilly Allen CD (with my dinner money). The lyrics for all of the songs = hilarious: "you've got a leak in your colostomy bag..."

You have to listen to it if you haven't yet.