Browsing the channels and coming across the Democratic National Convention was the biggest waste of the last 30 minutes of my life. I’m still astounded by the unnatural, insaneness that occurs when Hillary entered the stage. I understand that she’s still trying to unify the party, but seriously, it’s crossed over into just theatrics. It’s also events like this that really brings up my root problem with politics - it’s overblown during elections and the rest of the time we’re completely in the dark about what’s going on in our country and the rest of the world.
We get to judge candidates based on a very limited knowledge of who they are as people and instead have to decode pre-written responses and past choices. Realistically it’s like Carlin said, “they don’t give a shit about you, they don’t give a shit about you.” Politicians play the game and it’s difficult to really connect on any level considering their position.
So no voting, that’s my short reply. I’m disappointed at the system and I don’t believe that anyone working within it really can do what’s right. I find it entirely ironic that of all the “democratic” nations, ours - which seeks out to install “freedom” in other countries - cannot even institute a voting system that says whoever gets the most votes, wins. No - we’re still too stupid to make our own decisions and therefore big business and banks will continue making them for us and thinning the middle class out until we’re back to the haves and the have nots and no one in between.
Alright, I’ll turn off the tube, as usual it’s rotting my imagination and depressing me.
So you wake up and roll out of bed and stumble to the bathroom, next thing you know you smell the delightful aroma of maple syrup. Is your better half already cooking a delicious morning meal? Not quite. As it turns out, there are two reasons why your sweat and/or urine could be smelling especially sweet - one of which is pretty scary, the other pretty harmless. The question is, are you an infant? If so, you may have Maple Syrup Urine Disease which affects 1 in 255,000 births in the USA and is completely genetic and inherited. It’s got some pretty nasty effects including neurological damage than can eventually lead to death if not treated. The latter case of syrup-smelling body odors is a direct result of ingesting fenugreek leaves or seeds. Popular as raw greens, in teas, or mixed into curries, even a small amount can cause pretty drastic changes in your body odor. You may or may not know already from our blog that we LOVE Indian food and recently we tried a new dish at the buffet that looked a lot like sag (spinach sauce) with chicken, but was actually fenugreek greens. I’m pretty used to the fact that eating Indian food changes my body chemistry, but I wasn’t prepared for this. At least I’m not an infant with MSUD…
It’s funny how in nearly all the pictures from this party I have a beer to my lips. I wasn’t even that wasted… or at least that’s what I think I remember.
Lara Logan, Chief Foreign Correspondent for CBS News, was on the Daily Show with John Stewart last night, not to promote a book or movie but to bring the issue of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan back into the focus. It was very interesting to hear her take on being a journalist and her “responsibility” to bring what’s going over there to the world and specifically the American people. They chatted about the numbness that has formed and how news organizations know that Americans are sick of hearing about the war and have begun tailoring their news cast to appease those sentiments. I think one of the most moving things Lara brought up was that she’s seen dead American soliders, but the majority of Americans at home haven’t, because we’re being sheltered and because gruesome images like that may actually resonate loud enough for people to really be infuriated and get passionate about speaking out against our government’s actions.
Do we all just look to electing a new president that’s going to come in and sweep the floors for us? Does it matters that years of apparent silence and ignorance to the rest of the world and our troops appears as consent? I think so. Lately I’ve gotten the feeling that everyone one I meet is more or less against the war, and I acknowledge that it has a lot to do with my circle of friends, family and where I live, but we don’t talk about it - as if it were old news, something that’s been hashed over so many times and that we feel helpless about since nothing changes. I logged on to myspace this morning and found this posted by a friend and it’s just so sad that we don’t have inspiration like his to look to anymore.
I was looking for some vintage stock photos today and came across a group on Flickr with a focus on collage imagery. You have to join the group to view/download the images. Within the group you can view the vintage tagged photos. As always, make sure you read the copyrights for the images as each photographer has their own terms of use. Most all the images are free for personal and commercial use; however, you cannot repost the images on your website for download or sale.
