I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
August 21, 2012 - 1:02 p.m.
Before you read this make sure you read Yesterday's edition of Wise Madness. That was about an actual interesting day with theater, music, comedy, geography, and friends. I'm actually proud of it.
I seem to be annoyed at the world. When I was talking about why I'm avoiding somebody my therapist suggested using the phrase not having the energy to deal with him or her. I liked that as it's a phrase I often use myself. Carey and I used to talk about that all the time. Dealing with some people is just too tiring. It takes too much effort. Today I find myself feeling that way about things that really don't deserve it. I'm being a fussbudget. I'm being a micromanagement fascist. It might be true but I'd make the trains run on time.
Before I start I'm going to warn you. I might offend you. I�m not going to apologize. While it is not my intention to offend, it never is. I could just keep quiet. I'm not because I feel I just have to let it out. I'm admitting it's about minutiae. Just keep that in mind.
Every weekday morning I play the WFUV Question of the Day. A question is asked and the listeners suggest songs that answer the question. Most days it comes down to coming up with songs on a topic. I enjoy it. It's a challenge to come up with songs that I like that hit the nail on the head. I try to make the answers as precise as possible. That's the fun. I don't want incidental mentions if I can find a song that is about the topic. If the topic were the sun I'd pick the They Might Be Giants Song The Sun, not Oh Susannah which used the word sun once.
So here was today's question:
Why is it that politicians have so much trouble with the music they use in their campaigns? You'd think they'd do a little homework, but no. As music lovers, we figured we could give a helping hand to our candidates by picking out a playlist for them. Share a song - and please tell us which candidate it's for in today's Question of the Day.
Seems pretty clear right. Think of a candidate and find a song that fits him or her. There's lots of room for fun here. Nobody said you had to support the candidate. You can pick songs that sarcastically represent candidates you don't like, political satire. She isn't running this time but the perfect example for me would have been picking Season of the Witch for Christine "I am not a witch" O'Donnell.
Here are the songs I suggested:
For Obama who I am actually voting for, Dylan's "Honey Just Allow Me One More Chance" from "Freewheelin' Bob Dylan."For Todd Akin and quite a few other Republicans that I'm not voting for, Jim's Big Ego's "Angry White Guy" from "Noplace like Nowhere"
For Newt Gingrich, The Title Track of Moxy Fruvous's "You Will Go To the Moon"
For Mitt Romney and his dog, C.J. Chenier's "Road Dog" from the album "Step it Up."
For Paul Ryan, Slaid Cleaves's version of "Your A Mean One Mr. Grinch" from his "Holiday Sampler"
Maybe not the best choices but they fit the question. Here were the answers that were used on the radio.
Poverty - Subdudes, Annunciation (High Street)Give me Just a Little More Time - Chairmen of the Board, Give me Just a Little More Time (Castle/Pie)
Chain Gang - Sam Cooke, The Best of Sam Cooke (RCA)
Would I Lie to You - Eurythmics, Greatest Hits (Artista)
Not one of them mentioned the candidate though the second is clearly for Obama. The first is totally irrelevant. Is there a candidate that is putting anti-poverty measures at the center of his campaign? Not that I've seen. What does it have to do with anything? Maybe the listener believes it should be an issue the candidates dealt with, I believe that too, but it doesn't answer the question. The4 last two are just knocking all politicians. Notice not one did what the question explicitly said to do, name the candidate. I just don�t the point of playing any game then ignoring the rules. It's like cheating at solitaire. Sure you can "win" all the time but it isn't much of an accomplishment.
What bothers me is the lack of thinking, my pet peeve of pet peeves. It's saying, "it's too much work to think this through so I'll just say the first thing that comes into my head and maybe I'll get to hear my name on the radio. Then to make things worse those songs got chosen so they were rewarded for not thinking.
Yes I wasted far too much energy worrying about this. But then I moved on because people came up with the usual nonsense that all politicians are the same, they are all evil and corrupt. Well no wonder evil and corrupt people get elected when people won't make distinctions. All politicians are not alike. Yes none of them are perfect. Yes most have lots of flaws. But some are far worse than others. It makes a huge difference who gets elected. I have never voted for a candidate that wasn't to the right of me. That isn't a tragedy. I'm far to the left of the general population. In a democracy I can't expect candidates to perfectly reflect my opinions when I'm outside the mainstream. It would be childish to think they should. Far too many people are childish. I don't have the energy to deal with that now.
I don't have the energy to explain each and every thing I talk about over and over again. Now I love explaining things. I'm a teacher. You want me to explain the importance of the Higgs Boson I'll gladly take the time to do it. But if I explain why interest on mortgage is based on a yearly rate and compounded don't totally ignore it and when I'm finished ay, "but I think if you take out a 10% mortgage at the end of 20 years you should pay back 10% more than you borrowed" I get enough of that when I'm teaching.
I don't have the energy to deal with people that have no knowledge of their local geography; That can't say if something is north, south, east, or west, so has to give a convoluted explanation of directions.
I don't have the energy to deal with someone that doesn't get when I'm joking.
The Akin affair actually has me defending Republicans, only to myself, but I'm mentally lashing some liberals. What Akin said was horrible. You know what, every Republican is saying that. The party establishment is trying to get him to drop out of the race. Yes maybe it is just in their self interest. It probably is just in their self interest. So what? It's the most they can do. I don't hear any politicians saying "he's right."
I saw one ridiculous blog that said if Republicans renounce what he said they should be asked what part they renounce with the implication being that if they didn't come out pro choice they didn't really disagree with him. How stupid is that? What he said that was offensive was that a raped woman can't get pregnant which implies that any woman that says she was raped and got pregnant is a liar. That is what's objectionable. No candidate will have any trouble saying that. Consider someone who said that the reason they want to raise taxes on the rich was because all rich people are thieves and murderers. I'd denounce that. I bet you would too. That doesn't mean you have to then say you are against raising taxes. One bad rationale doesn't mean that there aren't good rationales for a policy. I'm super strongly pro choice. I have absolutely no qualms about abortion being legal as a fetus is not a person. It's in fact one of the things that I'm far to the left of the population on. I think that any insurance plan or government program that pays for obstetric care should also have to pay for abortions. The choice shouldn't just be for those that can afford it. But I also know that everyone that is pro life is not evil. If I thought a fetus was a person I'd have very different views.
I'm actually not as grouchy as this makes me sound. I also don't have the energy for people that think everyone else has to meet their standards. The only one of these things that I'd ever day to someone is the complaint about all politicians being the same as that attitude does degrade democracy. It isn't a self-fulfilling prophesy but it makes it closer to the truth.
So now I'm going to come up with the energy to make my breakfast. Earlier I caught up and did my dishes. It's another beautiful day and I want to take another walk but I also want to tackle my huge backlog of emails and make a phone call I have to make but haven't been able to get myself to make it. Part of the reason I'm lacking patience dealing with others is I'm using all my patience up dealing with myself.
I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.
Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
Wise Madness is Now In Session - May 28, 2018
The NFL and the First Amendment - May 27, 2018
On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
Oliver the Three-Eyed Crow - May 25, 2018
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Horvendile August 21, 2012
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