errands, elections, and angelinas

[ciroccoj]

If I ever happen to say something like, "It's Saturday & it's raining - what better time to go run some errands down Bank St?" please shoot me. Or, better yet, please hand me a dull rusty spoon and tell me to try and make it go in one ear and out the other. Because that would be far more pleasant than sitting on Bank St. for a couple of hours listening to my wipers and trying to keep Justin entertained.

'kay?

***
In other news, I think I will have to get myself the hell away from anything that has anything to do with the

I keep thinking of a fairly histrionic acquaintance of ours who used to claim that truly upsetting things made her "physically ill." Another acquaintance of ours remarked, after about the seventeenth declaration of physical illness, that the next time Candice said she felt physically ill he was going to puke on her himself.

And yet watching this train wreck in slow motion that is the US election, I sympathize with Candice. I do feel ill. And really, really sad. Preparing for the fallout when America gives the rest of the planet (and a sizable proportion of its own citizenry) the biggest Fuck You that has been heard in I don't know when... I don't know what to think. Except, atheist that I am, "God help us all."

Sites like this one give me a bit of hope (click on "Predicted Final Results") but it's rather a dim and forlorn one.

So. I'm not thinking about it, and will not listen to the radio, or look at online or offline polls, or read the papers, or read political lj entries, or watch TV - hell, I will not even use Heinz ketchup until the dust has settled. I just hope this time we don't have to wait till February while the abacuses (abaci?) are dug out and put to use in Florida again.

***
On that note, I'm off to read about Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Waste while Chris puts the kids to bed. And then, after they're asleep, we're going to try to finish watching Taking Lives, with Angelina Jolie. Who, may I say, almost makes me understand half my f-list. If I went that way, I would so go her way ;)

If only I could watch more than five minutes of the movie (which is actually very good) without falling asleep. But alas, I am old and I suck.

'Night everybody!

Comments

Train Wrecks and Drama Queens!

[my-cat-tim.livejournal.com]

You gotta love a drama queen,like your friend Candace. They seem to get so much out of life! I am kind of the boring type.

Keep your peace of mind. There is no train wreck coming. American politics will go on as they always have. In many ways Bush's presidency has been no different from the Clinton one, well maybe Clinton was a little more fiscally responsible. The Democrats, called left of centre in the USA would be right of centre up here.]

Ralph Nader said something very important when he was being interviewed this week on CNN, I forget which show. He said that the only people who are begging him not to run (in order to give Kerry a better chance) are people who can afford to go away on vacations, can afford an SUV if they wanted one, can afford to go out and get a new TV set if their current one breaks.

This reminds me of the No Nukes rallies of the 80's during Reagan's presidency. It was a property issue. I remember it being primarily a middle class issue. There was a lot of fear and the world did not fall apart.

So now we are at the same junction. This time it is the environment that is causing us woes. But armagedden is not coming tonight, it will probably not come a century from now. The world is not going to hell in a hand basket. Your children will be safe.

Nader is right that there will be no difference to the poor, working and otherwise if Kerry or Bush gets in. And he is right. Once we start taking care of the community as a whole rather than playing in the rat race, I think we will find that problems such as the environment will take of themselves. That will be because people will stop looking at their high consumption lifestyles as a right and start thinking about the good of the community, both its people, and the environment we all live in.

But please don't let yourself get upset about this. Life will go on no matter who gets in. From the last video clip from bin Laden, I thought he was throwing his hat(or turban) into the presidential ring!

Take Care

Re: Train Wrecks and Drama Queens!

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

But please don't let yourself get upset about this. Life will go on no matter who gets in.

Your offer of comfort is appreciated, but I think there may be a few Iraqis, at least some of the families of the 1000+ US servicemen and woman killed in Iraq, some Pacific island countries that are quickly drowning, and one or two American same-sex couples who might disagree with you on that statement.

I fully agree that most of America's (and Canada's and the world's) problems have to do with insane greed and high consumption. But who's on top in the US does have a huge bearing on how we deal with that greed. The current leader is all about fanning the flames of greed to the detriment of everything else - international relations, the environment, human health and welfare, etc.

The world is not going to hell in a hand basket. Your children will be safe.

See, the way I see it, the world has already gone to hell in a handbasket. I'm watching much of green Ottawa getting bulldozed and turned into more streets and parking lots for our giant vehicles. I watch the news and see environmental disasters claiming the lives of more and more people in the Third World every year. The American same-sex marriage issue has a face for me: cassatt, who has been with her wife for (I think) fifteen years but whose political leader believes their relationship degrades marriage. All those studies that show that we're pumping a lot of carcinogenic chemicals into our atmosphere and that's raising rates of cancer? I watched my mother die of cancer this year. Both of her sisters had gone through it, one of them twice, and her husband's first wife died of cancer as well.

It's not theoretical, it's not probabilities in some distant future, to me. It's here and it's real, right now. My children are not safe.

And who gets elected on Tuesday will have a huge impact on their health and safety, and the health and safety of everybody else on this planet, because people take their cue from their leaders. If their leaders tell them "We need to bomb the hell out of any country that pisses us off" and "Don't worry about some little flood in Bangladesh, you need another SUV" and "Make sure them perverts don't mess with real marriage," they will do as they are told, and we will all have to live with their actions.

From the last video clip from bin Laden, I thought he was throwing his hat(or turban) into the presidential ring!

If this wasn't such a serious issue, you'd have me giggling with that line ;) In fact, the levity does help whether I giggle at it or not.


Your words are appreciated, as is the thought behind them. I can't agree with you, but I thank you for your effort at comfort nonetheless :)

Re: Train Wrecks and Drama Queens!

[my-cat-tim.livejournal.com]

LOL, I am glad you liked my bin Laden joke. What do you think Kerry would do differently from Kerry? The man owns over eights cars! He is committed to American business interests rather than the interests of individuals. He voted for the Patriot act and he voted for the war in Iraq. He tried to give some horseshit afterwards that he thought it was a power the president OUGHT to have, so he was not exactly voting for the war in Iraq, but given the situation that makes no sense whatsoever. Poeple around the world suffered for the acts of the USA under CLinton as well. CLinton has said he supports Bush's move into Iraq, so I am not sure you can count on a democrat to improve things in Iraq, or anywhere else in the world for that matter.

We have problems in the world, no doubt, but we have not gone to hell in a hand basket. We are living longer than ever. I do understand your pessimism. As a parent, you must find it very troubling when you wonder what kind of world your kids will inherit. But it will be all right. We have always gotten by.

I am very sorry for the loss of you mother. Cancer is a serious problem.

[snarkhunter.livejournal.com]

And yet watching this train wreck in slow motion that is the US election, I sympathize with Candice. I do feel ill. And really, really sad.

::sigh:: Yeah, that's a good way to put it.

Sometimes I desperately wish I weren't an American, because...well...you know. We're not exactly the world's favorite people at the moment. But then, I just try to remember that there can be good people in a nation even when it's not doing the best things. Feh.