On the issues

What are some of the issues that I’m getting riled about these days?

• The Republican race.  Before I mention anything else, I’ll have to say that I really don’t mind Obama.  I think he does have certain weak areas that are mainly going to hurt him during the next election, and I’m not thrilled with some of his concessions to the right, but I’d take him over the opposition.  There are a handful of candidates that I do agree with on a few issues, but the race has so many vocal and extreme candidates, any semblance of being a moderate is to risk being called a “Republican In Name Only”.   The way it’s going, though, Romney probably would be the Republican’s best bet if they wanted to beat Obama: I can see a lot of people strategically voting for Obama if a woefully inept candidate like Cain [before he dropped out], religious extremist like Michele Bachmann, or bald-faced hypocrite like Gingrich got the nomination.  You can’t win an election if you scare off the moderates (unless you find a way to make sure the other people don’t vote or don’t have their votes counted, but that’s another story).  When a litmus test for toeing the party line involves disputing a scientific theory with a very wide amount of consensus, denying rights to gay people, or refusing to raise taxes on the extremely wealthy (basically a new version of the divine right of kings) under any circumstance, it’s clear the lunatics are running the asylum.
• World AIDS Day was last Thursday.  The fact that AIDS is still a big epidemic, and I agree with Stephen Ira’s assertion that the inaction in the 80s against the virus was an act of deliberate negligence.  The attitude many had about the disease then was that it was “killing all the right people”; it seemed only to really become an issue once straight, white people began to get it.  I’m pretty sure that ignorant line of thinking is still thriving these days.  Thinking about this makes me so mad.  Even more upsetting is the fight against teaching effective safe sex procedures in favor of abstinence-only education, which to me is basically “If you don’t follow our rules, you deserve to get sick and die”.   I’m sorry.  I know of the various religious reasons people don’t have sex until marriage, but fact of the matter is that people are getting sick and dying.  People are also going to have sex, and nothing anyone says or does will ever fully get rid of it from happening.  Multiple lines of defense are needed, and if you’re stockpiling your hopes against one that goes out the window as soon as people give in to biology, you better want a backup.
• The omnibus crime bill is likely going to pass.  It seems more like posturing to seem tough on crime than anything that’s actually going to have a positive impact on society.  “Tough on crime” seems more like an advertising slogan than anything else.  Evidently, the Conservative government’s measure of success will be how many people they can fill the jails they’re building with.  The number of problems with the bill is staggering, as is the number of organizations opposed to the bill.  Consideration for mental illness is going to be thrown out, and it’s going to likely cost more than the Conservatives are saying.  Evidently they have no problem with spending taxpayer money as long as it’s for punishment instead of actually helping people.

I missed the five-minute free write for two days now.  I think tonight I will make a special fifteen-minute free write just to feel caught up and let myself cut loose.  I wonder if I’m writing for myself with these things anymore or if it’s for an audience (kind of a recurring theme in my “proper” blog posts).

Five-minute free write

I sag on the couch and watch my sitcom reruns, getting old and letting time erase.  I seek a new thrill, but I seek the comforts of the familiar when the first journey gets too scary and draining.  I listen to hip-hop with a dose of introspection and realize how often it is that I have brushed aside a type of music just because I didn’t like the sound it was making when it was background noise.  I really wish I had more time to sit to myself and listen.  I really think I will have to finally sit and write a novel or short story someday stoon, but what story do I want to tell?  What ideas to I use and which ones do I save?  There are people that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, but then  I think of random running jokes from sketch comedy shows.  And I’ve got a long way to go (“Such a long way to goooooooo” – backup vocal by Michael McDonald)  Yes I qwuoted an SCTV bit.  Well, technically a Chriostopher Cross song.  Yacht rock anyone?  I want my truth top show up on the page.  And I sound so incredibly pompus when I use phrases like “my truth”.  Are these free writes saying anything new or are they just rerpeating themselves?  I think I need to blow them up to then minute free write.  I’ve been doing this for a month now.  I’m amazed.  I need a prize or something.   Yes i think I do.

Five-minute free write

Ask yourself which camera to look at as you leap into the air like a dancer, but without the orchestra playing some well composed music to dance to, to flop around the stage irrhytmimicly and make an ass of yourself like a poplititian caught in a sex scandal but still bleating loudly about how he wants to be the one to protect familiy values from homosexuals and minorities.  Hypocrtisy is everywhere.  I worried too much about where I was going to go after i DIed and I thought that I would rather just try to live my life to the best of my ability.  Doing something solely because you don’t want to be impaled on a pitchfork for all eternity always seemed like a shoddy way to live.  What do I even believe anymore?  Morality is not tied to religion, and I find it even more inexcusable that so little was done about AIDS in the 80s because they thought it was a good way to let the “undesirables” die.  It only became a problem when the health of people they didn’t look down on was being affected.  I still wonder how many of these politicians think that AIDS is just another curse from a God who is sent to bully people into believing as they do.  What is God, even?  Who is he

Five-minute free write

Missing the beat and missing the pointy, I am missing my friend and missing you.  We are too far apart and I am worried I am heading down a road that I do not wish to pursue.  This is not a great idea is it, I think I am losing it to the pressures of time and the temptaition to regress and feel like I am in a comfortable place again.   Should I go back to a city or should I just enjoy my time to myself once in a while.  Risks are for the strong, chance is not something I need to take sometimes.  Maybe it is just fine to relazx and have a week long vacation from myself.  Not going forward or anything, and I think it is time to find a good career for myself.  Writing is something I do with my eyes closed and my mind awake.  Even when I am not actually writing anything, I think about writing.  Is that enough to call myself a writer, or is this just pretending  Who pretends?  Would anyone want to be around John Galt?  He doesn’t seem particularly pleasant and the only thing going for him is that a bitter Russian lady somehow says he is great.  Words vs. deeds.  You can be brialliant and an asshole at the same time.