Mocktober

It’s technically autumn, but it sure hasn’t felt like it lately! I believe we had a frost last weekend, which means that we’re in Indian Summer, and it’s been just beautiful lately. Sunny and temperatures around 80° for most of the week!

We went to the Notre Dame-Air Force game yesterday, and it was so nice we were still able to tailgate before the game. (We probably still will as it gets cooler, but it’s not as much fun. Some people go to elaborate lengths for tailgating, with generators and heaters. We’re strictly small-time.) I stupidly didn’t wear a hat, because I thought I’d be comfortable enough without one. I ended up having to buy another ND hat, and I like this one even better than the one I had, so it worked out okay!

Since we were playing Air Force, we hoped they might have a flyover. I think it’s usually F-18s. We got a bit of a surprise this time. I saw movement up in the sky at the other end of the stadium and said, “Holy crap, that’s a Stealth! They’re doing a Stealth flyover!” Sure enough, as the National Anthem was winding up, here it came, right at us, and towards Touchdown Jesus. I had never seen one in flight before, and it was quite impressive. The crowd went wild!

The game ended up pretty well, too. The Irish dominated, with a final score of 59-33. It wasn’t even as close as that makes it look, because when we were up by 40 points, they cleared the bench and let the second string play. They gave up a couple of touchdowns at the end. Today is just doing some catching up around here, and it’s so nice Ken is going to fire up the grill and we’ll have our last two porterhouse steaks.

Tomorrow is going to be another nice day, and it looks like a good day for a protest march! Cousin Shane, Matt, Doug, and I will be heading downtown to take part in a MoveOn jobs march. This isn’t quite the same as the Occupy marches, but close to it. After that, we’ll stick around downtown and do our part to stimulate the economy by having a late lunch at the Thai restaurant. Recently, Herman Cain (or as Palin likes to call him, ‘Herb’) said that if you’re out of a job or if you’re not rich, don’t blame the banks, don’t blame Wall Street, blame yourself! Really? Really?! Talk about a case of blaming the victim. There are plenty of hard working people who lost their jobs because of the unbridled greed and deregulation of Wall Street operatives, and Cain has the nerve to say that it’s the unemployeds’ fault. Unbelievable. Ken and I have weathered this fairly well (rapping my knuckles on my head), but I will be proud to stand in support of my fellow Americans who have gotten royally screwed by banks and hedge fund managers, and have been told to shut up and take it up the ass, and to smile while it’s happening. And then that weasel Eric Cantor has the gall to say that the Occupy Wall Street protests are un-American, and just a bunch of mobs. Since when is it un-American to peacefully protest when you aren’t pleased with what is happening in the country? Last time I checked, that was in the Constitution. For a bunch of people who claim to love the Constitution so much, they sure don’t seem to like it when others exercise their Constitutionally-mandated rights.

But don’t get me started. [wink]

I have one more beef, and then that will be it for today. You may have heard about the brouhaha that took place this week in the Massachusetts Senate race. Scott Brown is the incumbent, and Elizabeth Warren is leading in the primary to be his Democratic challenger. Several years ago, Brown was the centerfold in Cosmopolitan; not the full monty, but nude except for something strategically placed in front of the ol’ groinage area. In a recent Democratic debate, when asked about how she paid for college, she made the joke, “I didn’t take my clothes off.” Brown was asked about the remark on a radio show, and in response to Warren’s crack, he said, “Thank God.” Then he and the DJ yukked it up a bit.

This bothered me, and yes, I’m going to tell you why. I found it to be a typical male response when they are intimidated or ridiculed by an intelligent woman: make fun of her looks. It strikes me as condescending and patronizing, and somewhat misogynistic. Do I think it’s a huge deal, one that Brown should be tarred and feathered for? No, not really...but as a woman, it bothered me as indicating a deep-seated tendency to marginalize women. Did Warren bring it upon herself with her own joke about it? Yeah, probably, and she chose not to dive any deeper into these murky waters of snarkiness.

Some of my guy friends dismissed it as a tempest in a teapot. The incident really isn’t a huge deal for me, but it did bother me. It reminded me of my first job in Grand Forks, North Dakota. I was up in the ICU and trying to find a place to draw blood on a patient. With all the lines and IVs, it wasn’t an easy task. One of the patient’s doctors, a cardiologist, happened to be in there at the time, and he put his hands around my waist (Bad touch! Bad touch!) and moved me to the side, then said to the (male) patient, “I bet it doesn’t hurt as much when they’re as pretty as this one, eh?”

It was condescending and creepy, dismissive of my education and duties, and incredibly sexist and unprofessional. (Yes, I complained to my manager.) I didn’t find it complimentary at all, and even 25 years later, I remember it quite well. Whether being “complimentary” or derogatory (I’ve had that happen, too...like being told my eyes are so far apart that I look like ET. Oooo, burn! What else ya got, crackuh?), it’s the same demeaning bullshit that women have had to put up with for centuries. When some men are confronted with an intelligent woman, they resort to any means necessary to demean them and put them in their place. You can also bet that any woman who had posed like Scott Brown did would not have a career in politics in this country, and would be portrayed as a whore. Elizabeth Warren is an incredibly smart and capable woman, so Brown demeans her first by ridiculing her Harvard professorship (how awful those Harvard elites are!) and then by implying that she’s a repulsive woman that no one would ever want to see naked. She can take care of herself, I have no doubts about that.

But I feel that I have every right to say, “This bothered me, and here is why.” If you want to dismiss my viewpoint, I suggest you do it without calling me ‘honey’ or asking me to make you a sandwich before we discuss it.

When stubbornness becomes dangerous

I understand stubbornness. I’m as stubborn as they come. If someone repeatedly tells me that I have to do something, I just HAVE to, you can bet that I will not do it just because I don’t like to be told that I have to do something. That is why I have never seen “Titanic” and I have yet to read any of the Harry Potter books. (I’ll eventually cave on the latter...I’ve read too many good things about them, and people whose opinions I value vouch for them quite vehemently. But not yet. I’ve got too many other books I want to read first.)

So I really do get people digging in their heels and refusing to compromise.

What I cannot understand, however, is digging in your heels because of some stupid ideology that has been repeatedly shown to be false, especially when the result of your intransigence is the risk of ruining the good name and credit rating of your own country.

That is what I’m seeing from the Repub leadership lately. Boehner, McConnell, and especially Cantor have shown themselves to be uncompromising and two-faced, refusing to budge one inch on their bizarre ‘no new taxes’ mantra. Boehner has been more willing to compromise, but then turns around and accuses the President of being unwilling to do so. I won’t go into details of the numbers, and what the President has been willing to agree to but has been refused by the Repubs; I won’t go into the reality of how our tax rates are the lowest ever, despite the Repubs saying that our President is obsessed with raising taxes; but when the President proposed extensive budget cuts, even to some programs that someone like myself has a real problem with him cutting, the Repubs walk away and refuse to discuss it. Why? Because Obama is asking for shared sacrifice, asking for a slightly higher tax rate among the richest 2% in the country. This is apparently unacceptable to the Grover Norquist asskissers in our government. A majority in the country—well over 60%—accept a combination of spending cuts and tax increases as the best solution to our economic woes. The Repubs ignore that, and go merrily about their business of totally fucking over our country.

This just boggles my mind. Corporations are sitting on record profits, and the Repubs continue to stick to their guns (so to speak) and say that this will hurt job creation. What universe are they living in? Seriously? Businesses have lots of money, and they are not investing in workers. Cutting their taxes will not change that. DEMAND drives job creation. Allowing the irresponsible Bush tax cuts to expire for the richest, while leaving them in place for the middle class, will allow revenues to increase and put more money in the pockets of the millions of middle class Americans, which they will then spend on goods and services which will then drive up demand which will then result in job creation. This is not rocket surgery, people. I’m no economist, and even I get it.

But not the Repubs. No. They continue to support the corporations and the CEOs who are raking money in hand over fist. They continue to cling to this stupid Norquist pledge (Why do they kiss this guy’s ass? I’d love to know.) and ignore economists’ predictions and analysis of what is going on in our country. They call for less regulation for Wall Street, when those greedy assholes are some of the main players in what got us into this economic mess in the first place.

I rue the day that I ever registered as a Repub and I regret every vote I ever cast for one. I’m even to the point where I’m sick of Dick Lugar, a moderate if there ever was one, and will vote for Joe Donnelly against him (if Lugar survives the teabagger candidate who is running against him in the primaries) in one of my Indiana Senate races.

A deal looks closer tonight than it has recently, but I find it absolutely ridiculous that the Repubs were so puerile and juvenile that they brought us to this point. The world is watching, and the world is worried. It might be hard for some to comprehend, but our economy affects the entire world. A default on our loans would be disastrous, and I am pissed at any Repub who thinks it would be okay. Get over losing the election to Obama and get to work. Address our problems rather than ignoring them, and stop politicizing this entire negotiation. I know you don’t want our President to have a second term. But if you want to win it, do it legitimately and stop screwing over the middle class and our entire country.

Mmm-kay?