Traveling & Hungry & Anything Will Help

So I'm making the rounds and running my errands, and as I leave the long driveway of that insufferable Wa1-mart (only because it shares a driveway with Lowe's and that's where my errand was) I see this young woman sitting by the side of the drive with a pile of bags, a little scruffy dog, and a sign inscribed with the words in this title. I had to squint to make out the words because they were handwritten, obviously, but squished and uneven too. She could see I was trying to read the sign and she sat very still.

There are cars behind me and I feel pressured to drive on before I've finished decoding the sign. As I drive past I get a clearer view and make out all the words and see her state and glimpse the dog and watch her face get just a little sad as I pull away. Just the tiniest bit of sad. I'm swept up onto the highway where I immediately start crying.

Dunno.

So I cry and drive around the block and find all the change in my purse and in the car and I find all the folding money I have on me - which isn't much - and I swing around into the hell that is Wa1-mart once more and drive the long drive up to where she sits. I can see that she's picking up her bags and untethering the little scruffy dog. What she's being most careful with is a half a bag of Beneful dog food, so of course I begin crying again right on cue. I make myself stop the waterworks and pull up beside her.

She saw me and smiled. Small, fleeting, barely there and gone as quickly as her sadness. I was quite close and I waved her over to the open window on the passenger's side and first gave her all the change, which she placed in the pocket of a very large overcoat, and then gave her the folding money which was promptly tucked in beside the change. I looked her in the eyes - a very striking shade of blue - and saw all the cuts on her face and the calm sadness in the air and told her to take care. She didn't look away from my eyes when she thanked me.

I don't care what she spends the money on. Whatever brought her to the place where she's sitting by the side of the road on a rainy August afternoon with her little scruffy dog and a sign that says Traveling & Hungry & Anything Will Help is far more than I've ever had to deal with. She has needs I will never know.

I stopped.

Dear Joe Scarborough:

Yeah I saw you try, very patiently, to get the black guest to admit that your imaginary Possibility #5 was viable in the Gates incident - that NO ONE was at fault. You and Mika are so desperate to absolve all white people from having a racial BASIS, not even a bias but a BASIS, that you're willing to let Professor Gates "off the hook" too.

How very generous of your narcissism.

It is not possible to have a completely neutral schema. Our eyes, wired by our biology, SEE COLOR and we have been taught to react certain ways to it, whether those ways are positive, negative, or outcome-neutral. Further, race DOES enter into virtually every aspect of this culture because of the slave ships that brought African slaves here in the 1600's.

Did I sail the ships? Nope. Do I have to live with the consequences of that deleterious act? Yup.

Should my white sons be shamed and scolded because the white men who took this continent away from indigenous Americans chose to enslave Africans to build it? Nope. Should my white sons be aware that all of that occurred so they can make damn sure it never happens again? Yup.

Is every person a racist? Nope. Does everyone have a racial bias? Nope, and fewer and fewer of those biases end in terribly negative consequences.

Does everyone have a racial basis? Yup, and as much as you, Joe, would like to teach Mika how to handle "her journalistic self" so that she can coerce guests into agreeing with your whitewashed version/vision of America, it won't happen. Too many of your guests, especially your favored guests, have proven your position invalid. Please let go, Joe, and move on. Lean more to the information side of The Force, and leave the comedy to Stewart and Colbert.

Barack Obama: The Perfect Storm of WTF

Barack Obama is confusing the hell out of America, and here's why.

He's half African - the straight from Kenya kind of African - and thus bypasses the tormented past of today's American-African. He's half Kansasian, whatever the hell that would be - a real, traceable tie to the midwest, to our heartland (insert violin music here) which would then make him appear to be as American as apple pie. But then, just to make matters worse, what did he do? He then grew up in the Land of Hula and spent some time living in and learning about cultures other than American. Yes, you read that right! Cultures other than American! Seriously, are there any cultures other than American? I mean, cultures worth living in and learning about? Like, sure, there are places we can go to ~vacation~ and maybe dance the aforementioned hula, but are they really worth living in and learning about?

It's clear to me that all this living and learning made him ungrateful to the country he was born in which is probably why he wanted to be president (you know, so he could "get even") except... except... except that maybe he wasn't really born here... and that's not all. To top it off, this unconnected black man married a woman who is so connected she can actually trace her lineage back to slave Africans. This means, you see, that he's as biased and as victim's-card-playin' as the rest of the American Africans who aren't thankful and grateful that their great great grandparents were dragged here against their will and forced to work for free to build this great nation we took from indigenous Americans (oops, sorry indigenous Americans).

Barack Obama... that ungrateful bastard legitimately born to a married couple. He's just happy/mad that he was/wasn't born here and is/isn't connected to any real black Americans and he might/mightn't really be President.

WTF? See! I told you Barack Obama's confusing! Look at the effect he's having on me! Well, I want you to remember two things from this post. First, America is for Americans, no matter what part of the globe we kidnap them from. Second, hula is for HOOPS. And not that basketball kind, either.

Get it? Got it? Good.

Roy Blunt: Obama Birth Certificate A "Legitimate Question" (VIDEO)

...sigh...the certificate of live birth IS a birth certificate. In certain cases - adoption, for example - the birth certificate with all the data (signatures of parents, attending physician, the footprint, the weight and length, the number of children delivered in this pregnancy) is sealed and cannot be viewed. In other cases, when it's nobody's business how much you weighed at birth and whether or not you had a twin who was delivered stillborn, you get a CERTIFICATE OF LIVE BIRTH FROM THE COUNTY IN WHICH YOU WERE BORN. IF HAWAII ISSUED THE CERTIFICATE OF LIVE BIRTH, HE WAS BORN THERE. Yes, I'm shouting.

Glenn Beck Removes States' Stars From American Flag Until "They Get Serious About States' RIghts" Like Alaska, Tennessee (VIDEO)

Dear States of America,



Please, please, please hurry and comply with the request of Glenn Beck. Do you realize that we are a nation torn asunder until he puts those state stars back on the flag? Don't you realize that we need Glenn Beck's support and approval to exist as a sovereign nation of states that are individually sovereign? Wait, that's not what I meant. Okay, let's start over. We can be a nation united with states that are separate...okay, hold on... we are a nation of states that are separate but united together except that each state isn't a part of the united part unless it wants to be or unless it needs a federal bailout or FEMA or vaccinations and it wants to participate in what it wants to participate in and doesn't have to do anything it doesn't really want to do...uh oh.



If we do it Glenn Beck's way, that flag really IS broken. Or maybe it's just Glenn Beck that's broken.



Calling Walgreen's to see if Glenn picked up his prescriptions,

TheRiverWanders

Online Poll: Jon Stewart Is America's Most Trusted Newsman

I'm not surprised. No offense to the other folks in the running, but Stewart has the ability (skill and opportunity) to be very direct and unflinching. I actually watch The Daily Show for the news more than the laughs. When I want laughs first, I watch Mourning Joe on MSNBC.

Liz Cheney Defends Birthers On Larry King (VIDEO)

Mark my words, Liz "Dartha Vader" Cheney is running for office.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. Arrested, Police Accused Of Racial Profiling

Wow, I didn't realize it was criminal to be "tumultuous". Good to know.

Pat Buchanan: 'Todd Palin Ought To Hold Levi's Head Underwater Till The Thrashing Stops' (VIDEO)

Whoever books that idiot Buchanan onto ANY show should be fired; he's just a Lush Rimbaugh without the cigar slobber and sweat stains.

On Morning JOKE:



And again later on Hardball, at about 5 minutes in (although the whole segment is worth watching):

Health Care Reform?

Okay, I realize I'm stretching my Econ 103 with this post, but there's something disturbing me about "health care reform". I don't think it will work, and here's why.

The present system is set up so that TWO entities profit from illness: the health care industry (doctors, hospitals, and other service providers) AND the insurance companies. Insurance companies gatekeep subscribers' access to services, and allow only (or mostly, if you demand a review) those services on which they reserve a profit. How can you "reform" a system with this massive silent entity, the insurance company, who stands by waiting only for its palm to be greased? Why aren't we hearing more about single-pay? I don't even know what the hell single-pay is! That alone concerns me. We can't "reform" a broken system just by spreading the misery amongst more people - the thing needs to be reworked.

Here's some reform. What if there were no insurance companies? What if the health care industry were to regulate itself with supply and demand like any other industry? What if proactive health maintenance activities were free? What if we evolved to the point where illness care was free?

Just the ramblings of a self-described economic novice.

Jackson and Potter and Wal*Mart, Oh No!

See More! Wal*Mart Really Sucks!

See! I Told You Wal*Mart Sucks!

The New American Crisis: Gubernatorial Meltdowns

Uh, what the hell is in the water in the governor's mansion? Spanish fly? Truth serum? Vodka?

Eliot Spitzer, Mark Sanford, and Flailin' Palin appear to have drunk deeply from some secret source of governor-water and are unable either to keep it in their pants or shut up. In some cases, both. Spitzer must have ordered the spanish-fly-only water, while Sanford clearly got the delightful and tasty spanish fly/sodium thiopental combo.

The only thing that was clear in Flailin' Palin's eighteen minute harangue yesterday is that she got the vodka. Hey, I guess there are some real benefits to being Russia's next-door neighbor; unfettered access to Stoli. See ya on Faux News, Winky!

Colbert Tells Viewers To Deny Rep. Cynthia Davis Food (VIDEO)

I volunteer to take away her Happy Meal.