Oh, Glenn Beck, You're Pretty

Sooooo, I'd like to take a moment to thank Glenn Beck on behalf of all of us silly hoodwinked Obama voters.

See, I didn't know that Obama had a "deep hatred" for white people, or that he was a racist. Clearly, we needed Mr. Beck to use his ultra high frequency racism detector and find the evidence that we were all missing.

Thank you, Mr. Beck. You know a thing or two about hatred, for sure. Remember when you said it took you a while to hate the 9/11 victims families? No? Oh, here you go.

Kisses and Hugs,
Cortney

It's Only Ok When I Use it, Because *insert justification for hypocrisy*

I wish someone, somewhere, would research the following phenomenon:

People who purport to be self sustaining, frugal, fiscally conscious people, who eschew government "interference" and who turn up their noses at the "welfare state", yet are totally, completely, 100% fine with said welfare state financing their way through early marriage and early babies while in college.

I suppose if you want to get married at 19 while you're both still in college, pop out two or more kids by the time you walk, and finance it all with Medicaid, food stamps, subsidized housing, pell grants, etc., that's fine. But please don't, as soon as you graduate, start to stump for politicians who want to cut those very same programs. Also, keep in mind that you only got those things because, as married students, you qualified as INDEPENDENT from your parents. Because for hundreds of thousands of single students who receive not one dime from their parents, being qualified as independent from the parents is IMPOSSIBLE until you are 24. Been supporting yourself since you were 14? Doesn't matter. Haven't received a cent from the parents all 4 years of college? Have proof that you paid for EVERYTHING on your own? Tough luck. But hey, get married really young and have a bunch of babies with only one or maybe neither of you working while in college? Bring on the gravy train!**

**Just to clarify, I for one wholeheartedly back welfare programs. I don't think there is anything wrong with using them, and cool, some young married people use them to get through college, perhaps even post-grad work. I don't think it's the practice that is wrong, it's the holier than thou in retrospect attitude. I actually read a comment on a blog by a woman saying "we're on food stamps and WIC and Medicaid now, and will be for the next 3 years while my husband is in dental school but we won't be on it forever, unlike some people". Well, good for you, but some people aren't using food stamps and WIC and Medicaid while hubby is in DENTAL SCHOOL and you tend to the passel of kids you've already popped out. They're single working parents, or teen mothers who were told that their baby is a blessing from God, please keep it, choose life and all that, but once it comes out it's just another problem for the conservatives to rant about. Check your middle class privilege at the door Mrs. Dental Student, and hang up your douchebag hat while you're at it please.

The moral of the story is, whatever your reasons or justifications for using welfare services are, the fact remains that you felt like you needed help, and you got that help from a government program. And instead of being a hypocrite with a short memory, why don't you bite your tongue the next time someone starts moaning about welfare mommies and wards of the state. Regardless of how you spin it, you financed your education, your early marriage, and your babies with welfare money. Ta-da, you're a welfare mommy too!! You were just lucky enough to have been in college and getting a degree while you did it.

Inside a Boy

Perfect

My Man Francis

Maybe I am a doormat. But I just can't hold a grudge. It slips through my fingers like sand. It's like trying to sculpt something out of a bucket of water. Even when I really, really focus, I just *can't*.

All of those people, if they called me up and said "I need you" could be sure that I would just ask where, what, how soon?

I'm ok with that. I'd rather be that person than the one clinging to grudges. Life's too short. We don't know how long we'll have each other. I just don't have the time or energy to play that way. Why waste that time?

Maybe I'm wrong. I don't think so though.

My grandmother was Catholic, I'm certainly not, but I've always loved this poem. Kind of sums up my entire philosophy on life, and love, and how to treat one another. As far as such summations go, I would venture to say one could do worse. The italicized part is my favorite.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.


O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life

G'night kittens

Thanks Ethics Class, I still Think About You

It's difficult for me to understand those who think that life is a zero sum game. Either I win and you lose, or you lose and I win. Everything has a neat little answer. Everything is either right or wrong, no exceptions. There are hard and fast rules, that are consistent in every situation, no matter what.

One thing I've learned, in my admittedly short 26 years here, is that things are rarely, if ever that simple. It makes it easier to believe that things are that simple, because then life is way less scary- you have all the answers, congratulations! To me, this blanket absolutist ethical framework is quite scary- it allows for no evaluation of individual circumstance, of exceptions. And this is where people will say, hey, for some things, it *is* right or wrong, yes or no- when it comes to killing people, stealing, or lying they say.

But actually, sorry, guys, even then not really- we sanction killing in all kinds of ways. I know people who think war is a crime. People who think it's necessary, and not even killing. People who think it's ok to kill someone if they're stealing your T.V., people who are against the death penalty in all cases. People who think abortion is always murder, sometimes murder, maybe not murder, not murder at all. Most people would say that they would steal money if they had to buy food to feed their starving children, or just cut to the chase and shoplift it. Or back to murder, most say they'd kill someone to protect their children. If they were cold and homeless, they might sleep in places they weren't supposed to, maybe break into an abandoned building, perhaps start illegal fires to keep warm. There is a classical ethical dilemma exercise in so many intro to psychology classes, the plight of the poor man who can either steal the medicine he can't afford, or watch his lovely wife die. People are consistently split on that one. Or, ok, honesty. Really, are any of us *completely* honest? Do we tell our friends they need to lose weight? When our grandmother works hours making a sweater that we will never, ever wear, do we look into her beaming face on Christmas morning and tell her as much?

Even our hard and fast rules have little bends and loopholes in them. And hard and fast rules vary wildly across cultures, countries, and social classes. Acting like this isn't true doesn't make that fact go away. But acting like it isn't true does have a benefit- it allows us to judge others for not following our own interpretations and applications of hard and fast rules, or to be unable to understand the specifics that led them to slip into a gray area. I guess, for some people, that's convenient, safe, predictable. To me it's just judgmental and shortsighted. But that's just me. And some people would say that my view is judgmental and shortsighted. And that's ok, since I don't believe in hard and fast rules ;)

Boys and Girls

Summer, you are everything I hoped you'd be and more. Thanks for all the opportunities and good times you've thrown my way so far. Let's keep it up :)

I think Regina says it best:



"It's been a long time since before I've been touched
Now I'm getting touched all of the time
And it's only a matter of whom, and it's only a matter of when
An addiction to hands and feet, there's a meat market down the street..."

Worn Out

So these are my old shoes. I got them in October of '06. I had been home from Japan for a month and a half. I'd driven all over the western United States with Mel, and she'd come home to Dallas on that trip. We were both living with Marti and Dad. We were unemployed. I had begun to receive some arduous communications. We were kind of depressed, the two of us ladies. And my shoes were full of holes from walking all over Japan. And Mel had no sweaters, as she had lived in California for the previous 6 months. So Marti took us out, and got us shoes and sweaters, respectively. I wear my Cons 355 days out of the year, so considering it's been three years of such abuse, these look pretty good. But Marti told me that once more she was going to buy me shoes without holes...

So here they are. Shiny. New. Way to bright way and dark black. I don't trust them. They're stiff as well. I just have to remind myself that what started off looking like this ^

Will eventually fade to the beautiful, comfy specimen you see on the right.

R.I.P. my darlings. You've been good to me.