Your life is yours anyway

Trampling on the history, the microscopic fantasy that the world isn't what we thought it would be.
Killing the dream of what we thought we'd be, the tragic, infatuated...lost people of history.
Religion isn't "it", realize your pain or get out of the way. Never sounding your horn or the raging chorus of idiotic, chaotic raffle of what the  life you've chosen to..live.
Sitting inside the walls of what your fantasy and reality...are.
It's disturbing your sleep, creating the painful creep in your mind, your listing, your pain, the tragic and carefulness you thought you had is...gone.
You see the pain and raging torrents of your frustrations and fear, telling you that, like "Pink Floyd" says...is there anybody in there.
What are you to say about who you are, you're lying, dying and laughing at everyone else trying to make their way in the world of what you thought you'd wanted to be.
You're just laughing at the world.
Grab yourself, stand up. Get together and make-up. You shouldn't wait to feel the rhythm of your pain.
Don't let the drugs take it away. Let your mind heal your soul, let your thoughts break you out.
It's always in yourself, it's never in the wealth. Don't forget who you are, don't let them train you like a puppet on a stage, let the chaos reign on your parade.
It never ends...this life. Don't let them, don't fret with what they say. Your life is yours anyway.

Pot bellied fools.

Bleeding, retreating, the pot bellied fools come eating.
Seeing their faces scarred with blood, the sand and the devil's sin
Gracious, desired the pot bellied fools see no end.
Noxious, intoxicating and they wonder when they'll be feeding.
The lambs have come, they stand to the side.
"We're no longer your food", they yell.
"We're fighting back, because we have to."
"You don't know what you're doing", the pot bellied fools say.
"We're doing the same thing people like us have done for millenia. We're taking a stand" The lambs say.
"But you can't you mustn't. What will we do?" The Pot bellied fools ask.
"You will let us live."

The Election Showed Republicans A Changed America.

The country has changed, that's what the election told us. Whites are no longer a majority of the population and nowhere was this more evident than the reactions the right had to President Obama's Reelection.

The Republican party ran their race as if the demographics in the country were the same as twenty years ago, they're not. They thought they could win by alienating the fastest growing population in the electorate, Latinos.

When the dust settled on Tuesday night, they discovered the country had changed, and changed while they were arguing over abortion, gay marriage and tax increases for the wealthy, while polls showed the majority of Americans believe abortion should be left alone, gay marriage isn't a big deal and the wealthy should pay more taxes.

While conservatives believed they'd won the election, Karl Rove's meltdown on Fox News was a sure sign of that. They are failing in the aftermath to understand why. They're only pointing fingers and calling names, they're not thinking about the future, if they were, they wouldn't want to us the tax plan of the losing candidate as a guide.

The Republican party lost the election because America is no longer the country they believe it is. They believe it's a Christian country, polling says more Americans are losing faith in religion and are becoming atheists.

The Republican party is behind the thoughts of the rest of America. The election showed them a new America, one they weren't ready to deal with and one they're scared of. If they weren't scared of it there wouldn't have been so many Republicans decrying the election as a sham and rumors of vote rigging.

America has changed and the Republican party has to change or it faces the possibility of being non-existent in future elections.

Why I Vote!

When  I was younger and more impressionable about politics, my grandmother and my aunt told me why they voted for Democrats.
For my grandmother it was matter of how she grew up. With an immigrant father from Scotland, she found out it would be easier to vote for Democrat than a Republican.

When she was older, and the Great Depression hit, she stood on bread lines, waited for food and watched as rich people became richer, while the poor suffered in breadlines and soup kitchens.

My aunt, who wasn't really my aunt we just called her that, but she was more of grandmother to us than anything else.

My aunt and her mom were a Republicans before Hoover and the Great Depression. When breadlines and soup kitchens became normal, and rich people became richer, her mom decided to change parties, rather than see another crash like the Great Depression, which was brought on by rich people making more money and putting the burden on the poor.

Now that I vote in elections, and have for a while now, I think back to what they said about Republicans and the rich.

When it comes time to talk to my son about politics I will tell the story of two ladies who made the biggest influence on my life, politically and personally. They were always the first to tell me I could do anything I wanted, and never criticized my decisions, even if they didn't agree with them.

We've come a long way as a Country, don't call it a Republic or a Democracy, it's neither.

Our values are not what they used to be, they're nothing like they were when my aunt and grandmother first started voting.

I miss my aunt and grandmother every day, especially around my birthday. They taught me wrong from right and showed me which party to vote for. I trust what they said more than I will ever trust anyone else.

When you're watching the debate this week, think about my aunt and grandma and why they voted Democrat.

47% - The Foot-Soldiers Of The Economy

Feature Image Courtesy Creative Commons Via Defence Images

We are the foot-soldiers of the economy.
We are the bartenders, waiters, cubicle cowboys and delivery truck drivers.
We run the economy.
We may work for a corporation, but we are not owned by a corporation.
We deal with the public, we may serve them food, deliver their packages and handle their credit card issues.
We are the ones you berate for your own benefit.
We see you at your weakest and strongest.
You berate us for not having a college education, but you cause college education to be out of our reach.
You think we're simpletons and uneducated.
You believe we're the ones who have the problem with your wealth, when it's you who have the problem with our middle class and poor.
You don't know who we are, but you will.
We are not the beggars and thieves of Dickens.
We are the foot-soldiers of the economy.
Without us the economy doesn't work
We stood by and watched you get your bailouts, while we suffered, lost our homes and were ridiculed by the banks.
Your power is in your money.
Our power is in our number.
We are the 47%

How Infection Starts

Infection may happen in a few ways.

1. You start watching something that you normally wouldn't on that news channel you know is nuts.
2. You hear something from a less than reliable source. You read it, and blam, you think like they do, but you really don't want to.
3. You see something on the news that is questionable. You look into it and you start seeing all these things that make go, damn, maybe those people are right.
4. You listen to a spouse that doesn't think the way you do. In the process you change your mind about things you never would have before.
5. You want to see what the other side of the aisle is really thinking, so you read one of their newsletters or start following them on Twitter or "like" them on Facebook.

There is only on cure to infection. It is tried and true and never fails.

Think for yourself. Don't listen to the pundits from either side of the aisle. Use your own brain to come up with a conclusion that makes sense.

There are ways to avoid these five things.

1. Read up on the subject, that's what Google, Wikipedia and books are for...some books will lead you astray, beware, and read the in leaf.
2. Judge things according to your moral beliefs, religion shouldn't be why you choose your politics. 
3. Listen to the news in small doses, or get rid of TV altogether. Never sit in front of the TV for hours watching the same thing, getting angrier at people you don't know talk about things that don't effect you.
4. Don't listen to your spouse, make up your own mind. Just because you're married doesn't mean you have to vote like they do.
5. Take bits from both sides and make up your own mind.

Politics isn't personal and responding to a post on Facebook or Twitter that is derogatory or in some way defaces someone's wall is irresponsible and arrogant. On second thought, don't read the political posts on Facebook.

Have We Learned Anything From The Great Recession?

With the world and the U.S. getting past the Great Recession, I've been wondering what we have learned from the Great Recession.

Are we learning to manage our personal finances better? Are we learning to spend less on things we want and spend on things we need?

As I listen to people I work with and people I serve drinks to the answer is no, at least for a lot of people.

I've learned to spend less on things I want, like a new TV, new video games for my son and I and I'm managing our budgets a lot better than before the Great Recession took place.

People I still blow their savings on vacations, when they should be using it for something else, like a just in case fund.

We should be planning for future Recessions, because their going to happen regardless of the election outcome, there's always one around the corner, whether we like it or not.

As a race we've been conditioned, lately, to only pay attention to things in the short term, and that was one of the causes of the Great Recession. The only people who had money put away were those that knew how to handle there money, I wasn't one of those people until recently.

I see people slipping into the same habits after a bankruptcy, loss of their homes, not enough money for their kids, adults who still buy toys for themselves when they should be saving up for college for their kids. It feels like a lot of people want more for themselves, in the short term, than they do for their kids in the future.

Habits like I've described above led us to spend money we don't have on things that we don't need or will be outdated in a year or less.

This constant turn over isn't only our fault, it's the fault of corporations giving us things they think we want. 

If the power were to go out in the world tomorrow how would you feel about the objects you own? Would you be angry, jealous, despondent or would you go on with your life the best you could, taking care of your kids, family and spouse?

Are you doing things differently since the Great Recession? Why or why not? Answer in the comments.