In case you couldn't already tell what side I'm on...

This makes me really happy:



As does this:

By Garrison Keillor
Sep. 10, 2008:

"So the Republicans have decided to run against themselves. The bums have tiptoed out the back door and circled around to the front and started yelling, "Throw the bums out!" They've been running Washington like a well-oiled machine to the point of inviting lobbyists into the back rooms to write the legislation, and now they are anti-establishment reformers dedicated to delivering us from themselves. And Mayor Giuliani is an advocate for small-town America. Bravo.

They are coming out for Small Efficient Government the very week that the feds are taking over Fannie and Freddie, those old cash cows, and in the course of a weekend 20 or 50 (or pick a number) billion go floating out the Treasury door. Hello? Do you see us out here? We are not fruit flies, we are voters, we can read and write, we didn't just fall off the coal truck.

It is a bold move on the Republicans' part -- forget about the past, it's only history, so write a new narrative and be who you want to be -- and if they succeed, I think I might declare myself a 24-year-old virgin named Lance and see what that might lead to. Paste a new face on my Facebook page, maybe become the Dauphin Louie the Thirty-Second, the rightful heir to the Throne of France, put on silk tights and pantaloons and a plumed hat and go on the sawdust circuit and sell souvenir hankies imprinted with the royal fleur-de-lis. They will cure neuralgia and gout and restore marital vigor.

Mr. McCain has decided to run as a former POW and a maverick, a maverick's maverick, rather than Mr. Bush's best friend, and that's understandable, but how can he not address the $3 trillion that got burned up in Iraq so far? It's real money, it could've paid for a lot of windmills, a high-speed rail line in Ohio, some serious R&D. The Chinese, who have avoided foreign wars for 50 years, are taking enormous leaps forward, investing in their economy, and we are falling behind. We're wasting our chances. And the Republican culture of corruption in Washington hasn't helped.

And a former mayor of a town of 7,000 who hired a lobbyist to get $26 million in federal earmarks is now running against the old-boy network in Washington who gave her that money to build the teen rec center and other good things so she could keep taxes low in Wasilla. Stunning. And if you question her qualifications to be the leader of the free world, you are an elitist. This is a beautiful maneuver. I wish I had thought of it back in school when I was forced to subject myself to a final exam in higher algebra. I could have told Miss Mortenson, "I am a Christian and when you gave me a D, you only showed your contempt for the Lord and for the godly hardworking people from whom I have sprung, you elitist battle ax you."

In school, you couldn't get away with that garbage because the taxpayers know that if we don't uphold scholastic standards, we will wind up driving on badly designed bridges and go in for a tonsillectomy and come out missing our left lung, so we flunk the losers lest they gain power and hurt us, but in politics we bring forth phonies and love them to death.

I must say, it was fun having the Republicans in St. Paul and to see it all up close and firsthand. Security was, as one might expect, thin-lipped and gimlet-eyed, but once you got through it, you found the folks you went to high school with -- farm kids, jocks, the townies who ran the student council, the cheerleaders, some of the bullies -- and they are as cohesive now as they were back then, dedicated to school spirit, intolerant of outsiders, able to jump up and down and holler for something they don't actually believe. But oh, Lord, what they brought forth this year. When you check the actuarial tables on a 72-year-old guy who's had three bouts with cancer, you guess you may be looking at the first woman president, a hustling Evangelical with ethics issues and a chip on her shoulder who, not counting Canada, has set foot outside the country once -- a trip to Germany, Iraq and Kuwait in 2007 to visit Alaskans in the armed service. And who listed a refueling stop in Ireland as a fourth country visited. She's like the Current Occupant but with big hair.

If you want inexperience, there were better choices."

So, he is brilliant.

I have to work on getting my journals typed up tonight/tomorrow. Plus start Eaters of The Dead. Should be a good time.

Love love.

SAC.

The future cannot be told, but only seen as one walks towards it. -Josiah Seligman

It's late. Well, I suppose it isn't really, but I feel like it's late. My head aches, my eyes are growing fuzzy, and I am yawing incessantly. I should sleep. It's likely a very wise decision on my part. Yet, here I am writing away.

I feel sort of down. I just watched Becoming Jane, and I must remark. It was very well done, however, it is sad. I am fully aware that it is a true story, and so must the movie go, but, I am just sad. I am not a fan of movies that do not have happy endings. Not at all.

Story time. Last night, after watching Henry V, Kenneth Branagh style, working on my journals in the library, and a nice long chat with a long lost friend, I came home to find ants. Ants everywhere in my room. It was truly terrible. I screamed, caused great commotion in the house, made the dog bark, sprayed ant spray, which I proceeded to choke on, and then fell in the bed in the guest room for a rather rocky night sleep.

When I woke up this morning at about 8:30 I was thoroughly disoriented as to where I was. Once I realized, I remembered the events of the night before and became very upset. I think it wasn't so much the ants themselves I was upset at, but rather, they were my breaking point. I sat in the guest bed and cried. I cried about the ants, I cried about my classes and all the stress that comes with them, I cried because I am lost about finding a job, I cried because I couldn't go to my best friends 21st birthday party [which was tonight], I cried because I needed to. I cried for about a half and hour, and at 9 o'clock I was done. I hopped in the shower, and the rest of my day was fairly good. Not terribly wonderful, but also not terrible awful. I had a massage, and it was nice. But, I am glad I cried. I got emotions I know I needed to release.

Tomorrow will be an alright day, I think. Mama and I are hopefully going to Wal-Mart in the morning for some things I need. Then I have to pretty much work on homework for the entire day. Hopefully, if I get enough done on typing up my Shakespeare Journals, then she and I will run off to see the new Cohen Brother's movie. =]!

Sunday is primary a homework day. I do have a funtime event planned for the evening.

I am off to bed, I think now. Goodnight, all you wonderful people who have so decided that I am worthy of being read. I do love you.

Love love.

SAC.

I think it's about time for a rant.

Okay, to start, for those of you who don't know, I am fairly feminist. No, that does not mean that I am lesbian, or that I don't shave my arm pits, or that hate men, or that I don't wear a bra, or whatever your made up idea of what a feminist is. It just means that I think that women and men [yes, AND men] of every race, class, and sexual orientation should be treated equally. I believe in the woman's right to choose, I believe in ending sexual and domestic violence for women and men [along with that I believe in the ending of the objectification of women in general whether it be for sexual purposes or not], I believe in equal treatment in the work force [like equal pay for equal work], and other such related issues.

Something that goes along with this [at least for me, I suppose not for everyone] is that I am very liberal. I don't like to say that I align myself with one party or another, but when it comes down to it, it's more likely that I will vote Democratic in most cases. This time, it's a sure thing. I really like Barak Obama. I think he the only person in the race even worthy of taking office, and God knows he's so much better than Bush. He has a mind for change, REAL change. He's an pro-choice advocate, he supports gay rights, he suppourts finding/researching/using new forms of energy, ect. Basically all the issue that any liberal would be concerned with. And, I think that Joe Biden is a great choice for VP. He has foreign policy experience, and he has general experience with politics. Not to say that Barak doesn't. Barak may not have 35 years in the senate or however long John McCain has been in office, but he does have life experience and I think that is just as necessary. He has worked in community service, which, if you ask me is better than war service. The opposition has said the contrary.

Which brings me to my rant. Sarah Palin. Let's talk about Sarah Palin here for a minute. Sarah Palin is about the most opposite you can get from a feminist. She, in my humble opinion, is worse than some men. Infact there are quite a few "feminist" men. Barak Obama is outspokenly one of them. Anyway, back to Palin. She DOES NOT believe in a woman's right to choose. She DOES NOT support gay and lesbian rights. [And, she wants to drill in Alaska, which is a whole different matter... How can you be FROM Alaska and want to drill there?!]

John McCain believes that she is going to magically bring all of the women who liked Hilary Clinton to him, just because Sarah Palin is a woman. NEWS FLASH, not matter what sex she is, She has to have the SAME VALUES as those women. Which, she, very outspokenly, does not. As much as these women may not like Barak Obama as much as Hilary, they sure like him better than Sarah Palin.

My question is one that most women should have: How can you, infact, be a woman, and NOT support the woman's right to choose? That is basically stating to the world that you, the woman, are okay with being told exactly what to do all the time about everything. The right to choose is not JUST abortion or reproductive rights, but it is also: choosing to have a job and what kind of job [and being paid equally], choosing to be whatever sexual orientation she wants to be, choosing to get out of a violent relationship, choosing to live alone, choosing to DO THINGS FOR HERSELF. So, I guess that means if the McCain/Palin ticket wins, that Sarah Palin will be okay with not making any decisions in her place of office. I guess in a way, that is a choice, just not one for the betterment of herself.

I won't go in to her personal affiars, which have been blasted everywhere. That is her life, and her business. It does not reflect at all in her political stances. However, I will make a point about her experince. She was the mayor of a town of 9,000 and the governor of a state with 670,000 people. Barak Obama is a senator from a state with 12,831,970 [and besides the fact that he was US senator and has actually left his home state before.] And the population of the US is 305,107,700. If she thinks that she has experience because she was the mayor/governor of these places, she needs to take into consideration how many more people will be under her "control" as it were.

Now, to conclude I will state that these are merely opinions of mine. This is what I believe. I am in no way telling you that you must believe these things. You can believe/think/do/vote in whatever way you see fit.

Barak Obama and Joe Biden will be who I am voting for in November. I can only hope that you will do the same, but if you choose not to, no judgement from me will be past on you.

Okay, the rant is over.

I am in the library as usual, and now I need to read Henry V, and do my "a" journals. Wish me luck.

Love love.

SAC.

My life in the library.

So.

I am in the library, [sitting not too far from that attractive person with the girlfriend that I was so liking before...hmmm] which is something that has become more than a habit for me. It's probably slightly unhealthy the amount of time I spend in this building. However I fear that I would not get any work done if I did not spend a exorbitant amount of time here.

Of course, you fabulous readers of the Sarah Countryman blog may say, "Then why, oh, why, are you on the internet, not being productive?!" Well, my dears, that is because if I read one more line of the Odyssey or outline one more sentence of my Theory book, I will actually explode. So, therefore I am taking a breather, and usuing Chelsea's old and sad [I'm sorry Chels, but it's true] laptop to breathe.

My homework that I have tonight is:
-Studying for my quiz in Theory, which is actually going to be more like a test and be quite difficult. Not looking to forward to it.
-And reading books 16-20 of the Odyssey.

I am working slowly, but I have already gotten most of my chapter in my Theory book outlined, and I have read 16 and 17 in the Odyssey... so I'm truckin' along.

I am feeling slightly sad about stuff in my life, but I am happier than sad, because I am currently sitting with Chels, Emma, Mark, and Jordan... the happiness in my life.

I am going to go now, and try and get some actual work done. Ha. We shall see how that goes... the future cannot be told, but only seen as one walks toward it.

Love love.

SAC.