The election results

Well it's been a busy few days since my last post but with the election results all but final I find myself wondering about a few things. So many Americans voted for "change" when they voted in the democrats, we all got "change" but not the promised "change". Flash forward to now and once again we have a party winning big in the election with "change" as their mantra. The difference this time around is that neither party won big enough to control all of government, with the democrats retaining control of the senate with the republics winning big in the house, neither party has enough to override a presidential veto. So now it gets interesting. Will the two parties make nice and work together to bring about the "change" the American voters are after? On one hand if they do and things improve the republicans can site back and say, "See we fixed it, we should control the white house in 2012" . On the other hand if they don't work together and nothing gets done the republicans will say, "See they won't work together and because of them we can't fix it so we should control the white house", either way the democrats have a tough row to hoe between now and 2012.

Early voting

Today I voted early as part on an experimental program in my state to try early voting centers. I had lunch, checked my email, and leisurely drove to the local voting center not 10 minutes from my house. The people in line were relaxed and smiling and the short line moved along just fine, all in all a huge improvement over the hassle and long lines of a typical voting day. I was told by a local candidate running for office that a few politicians at the state house were not liking these voting centers. I asked her why and she said typically candidates would line up just outside of a voting center on voting day, at the precincts they felt they might have a shot at winning, to shake a few hands one last time and be seen and with early voting there was no way they could be there everyday for two weeks to get that last bit of exposure. To me this all sounds so crazy, as If haven't made up my mind long before I vote, and having to shake a hand I may not want to shake or even deal with it makes me crazy. On top of that the selfish desire to campaign right up until the last second could cost me my right to vote early, as if the onslaught of early campaigning wasn’t enough? I’d love to see a law that says there can be no campaign advertising with signage or TV ads until 6 months before an election, with the amount that can be spent limited to a point all candidates can match. Maybe then candidates would keep to some sort of message other than the trash talk we hear most of the time. My mother used to tell us, “If you can’t say something nice, don't say anything at all”. No truer advice could be given even today…

 

Too old for long hair?

I read a wonderful article in the NYT this morning discussing the appropriateness of middle aged women with long hair. The author, Dominique Browning, did a great job explaining why is OK for many of us middle aged women to grow our locks nice and long and the simple pleasures we derive
from having long hair. Our society, corporate America, indeed even our loved ones often frown on our long hair as being some sort of rebellious sign of non-conformity.  The fact is I love walking on a windy day and feeling my long hair blowing in the wind, brushing it out at the end of the day and feeling it silky soft on my back, and the way my man can rub his fingers through it, or at times pull it if the mood strikes us to play that way. I love being able to braid it, style it, or leave it straight and
long. I love the way it tents my lovers face when I look down and kiss him, surrounding our faces with privacy and a level of intimacy and allowing us only a view of each other’s face.  Yes I’ll keep my long hair, color my hair, and enjoy my hair as long as I can, why not?

 

WikiLeaks good or bad?

This week the big news story is about WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, leaking nearly 400,000 pages of secret documents from the Afghan and Iraqi wars. There were so many things about this that make me very uneasy. How does a foreigner get so many of our most closely guardedsecrets, and if he can why can't our enemies? How does releasing the names of our allies in these war zones putting their lives in danger, and possibly causing others to never help us, do anyone any real good. Does this type of espionage cross the line during times of war as to qualify as a true international war crime? Another disturbing thing is the way some of the documents paint a picture that shows our country was guilty of killing so many civilians. I could see how many of the incidents described in the documents looked badly for the soldiers but then one must put themselves in their shoes. They are fighting a war were both the enemy and the civilians look exactly the same, and in many cases are the same. As a solder in this place you see other fellow solders maimed and killed by road side bombs, snipers, and suicide bombers that dress, act, talk, and look exactly like the people you are there to defend. I don’t know the answer or if there really is one, as for myself I say we declare victory and just come home. Let them sort it out for themselves, just as they have for thousands of years.

Robin

Juan Williams fired

I have always tried to catch my news on both the conservative station Fox News and the more liberal main stream networks including NPR. I always figured the truth lies somewhere between the two and having both sides of the story is a good thing, kind of like raising kids, there are ALWAYS two sides of every story. NPR by firing Juan Williams has, in a since, censored our news by sending a message to its news people that if you associate publicly with people or organizations that they do not agree with personally they will fire you. To make matters worse for NPR there is a state law in their state that prohibits exactly that tactic.

Earlier this summer we saw how the firing of Shirley Sherrod had to be re-considered when it was
shown, after the fact, that her comments were taken out of context. If you look at the entire interview with Mr. Williams you’ll see that that is exactly what has happened to him as well. Whatever happened to actually learning from our “Teaching Moments”  as our President likes to call them?

Ok So now i am truely networked

Being new to the whole blogger thing I found this windows blogger tool, so like any good nerd I clicked on it and sure enough windows live essentials 2011 pops up and I jump on the upgrade. The new windows messenger is pretty cool and linked my YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, MSN, and yahoo accounts, not to mention this blog and some Google stuff. I remember the days when everyone wanted their sites to be excusive and not to share, now they have no problem letting a person use their yahoo chat on msn, could it be they have figured out you are looking at their advertising now instead of yahoos? LOL

Walking off on the View

Already this morning every news station is replaying the scene from the View yesterday were two of the host walked off the stage because Bill O'Reily said something they didn't agree with. This goes to the heart of one of my biggest beefs, if your intelligent enough to have a political view be intelligent enough to stand up for it and defend it to challenges. Healthy debate on the issues is good for everyone, taking your ball and going home is for sore losers.

So...my first post !

Well since this is my little world I'm hoping I'll resist the temptation to hold back as not to make anyone mad, what can happen after all? I guess I should start with a little about me. I'm middle aged, divorced, single but attached, and starting my own business, lots in that for discussion I'm sure. I
love politics and I’m fascinated by the whole process and completely unapologetic to others for my personal beliefs, and believe you are completely entitled to your own. One thing I can't stand is when someone states their beliefs and then completely caves in when you confront them with a challenge, I love spirited debate, but in the end I'll claim victory no matter what, it's called playing "Robin Wins".