Tuesday Morning, 12:30am Summit Hospital
I’m pacing around the ER waiting to be taken back for the latest bout of what turns out to be a cascading kidney stone (sometimes when I pass one, additional ones follow thanks to the drugs/fluidflush process) and UTI.
CNN is telling me I should care about the fact that some woman’s 14 year old daughter is pregnant. Beyond feeling sorry for the poor kid and her parents I couldn’t care less. I don’t really understand why it’s supposed to be my business.
I’ve spent a week watching court shows on TiVo and seeing the saddest moments of people’s lives paraded by for entertainment. I used to wonder about why people wanted to make their business public like that but I’ve decided it’s one part famewhoring, one part a desire to be understood and one part relief. These court shows not only pay an appearance fee, but also pay the judgement. Having someone step in and bail you out like that must be a marvelous feeling. I remember some unexpected checks we received in our darkest hours and how welcome those were. I think bein gon a court show must be something like that.
There are definitely different kinds of court shows. I’m not a fan of the ones that are most obviously going for the oh-no-you-di-int! factor. If they do paternity tests and allow the litigants to yell at each other I kind of feel like I’m watching a thinly-veiled Jerry Springer. Judge Joe Brown, Judge Hatchett and Judge Mathis are all like that. It bugs me because it seems like all the black judges get stuck with those shows.
The part of my personality which craves order and rationalism really likes the court shows that are, well, like actual small claims court. The ones that are “boring” and involve disputes over mundane things like trees and contractors and dry cleaners. People’s Court is my favourite for just that reason.
I got started watching the others when PC was in a series of reruns and I was craving the whole short-story/decisiveness thing. I’ve since been alternately fascinated and appalled. It amazes me at how sad some folks’ lives are. It saddens me further when I realise that in a lot of cases the bad lives are out of those people’s control. I will say that it does keep me from feeling too sorry for myself. It’s hard to throw yourself a pity-party when you realise how ugly life COULD be.
I can’t decide if it’s exploitative of others to watch these shows or not. I don’t like participating in activities which degrade other people. I go back and forth about it.
I just don’t know.
I do know that I can’t write for crap lately and so this is the dumbest post i’ve had in awhile, but there it is.
Just Another Pretty Farce 
It’s your business because a woman who would like to take away your and your family’s right to make certain decisions wants you to stay out of it while she and her family make those decisions.
It’s your business because a party that constantly trumpets its devotion to certain “family values” should be prepared to spend a few minutes in the spotlight every now and then so the rest of us can see how those “family values” hold up in their own lives.
It’s your business because someone who would like to see to it that “abstinence only” is the lone sex-ed lesson for our nation’s children is providing us with living proof that such a ridiculous notion doesn’t work.
And to top it all off, it’s your business because it’s one more bit of evidence that a VP candidate has been chosen with as much care and thought as an impulse buy in the checkout line at the grocery store. “Hey, Bazooka bubble gum! I’ll have some of those. And York peppermint patties! Yum. Oh, and I could use a TV Guide. And, hey what the hell, gimme one of them Sarah Palins too!”
Kat forgive me while I “feed” a troll…
Scott,
You seriously need to get a clue. Since when does Sarah Palin want “to take away your and your family’s right to make certain decisions”?
Sarah Palin’s family has more family values than all of the Democrats combined. She kept her baby when Dhimmis were screaming at her to abort. Her daughter is keeping her baby and marrying the father when many Dhimmis would have aborted and moved on to the next guy.
Since when does Sarah Palin want “abstinence only” sex education as the only sex education?
And as for your last statement, Sarah Palin has more executive experience than Barack Hussein Obama and Joseph Robinette Biden combined!
Now provide us with facts for your arguments, sir!
Kat forgive me while I refuse to take the bait.
I’m thinking that some people don’t know Kat as well as they think they do.
I’m sorry, Kat, but I must withdraw my previous statement. I am going to take the bait. Indulge me in this one and I promise that I will let it go after this no matter what.
First, Eric, since you know even less about me than you do about Sarah Palin, let me clue you in to the fact that I am no more enthusiastic for Obama than I am for McCain. The fact that either of them will be president in a few months appalls and frightens me, each for different reasons. But to get straight to your first challenge, to be clear we are talking about overturning Roe v Wade here and Palin is very much on the record as having that as a political goal. She is also, according to her own admission, an opponent of sex education in schools. In a 2006 Eagle Forum Alaska questionnaire she was asked: “Will you support funding for abstinence-until-marriage education instead of for explicit sex-education programs, school-based clinics, and the distribution of contraceptives in schools?” Palin’s response: “Yes, the explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support.” I could provide you with links to many undisputed articles, even audio and video of Palin herself, but you know as well as I do that no amount of evidence will sway your opinion one bit.
As for Palin’s daughter, you are correct that many women would have sought an abortion. And who, sir, are you to tell them they cannot? Again, for your information, I find abortion to be morally repugnant. What I find even more repugnant is the notion that the federal government should have the authority to tell a woman whether she can or cannot get one. This issue, like most, is not black and white but infinite shades of gray. The world is not that simple. Morality cannot be legislated. Personally, I know quite a few Democrats who have great family values. I also know Muslims and gay people for whom the same holds true. Maybe you should shut down the computer, turn off Fox News, and seek out real human interaction more.
And again, you are correct about “executive experience.” Of course, you do realize that Palin also has more of that than John McCain, right? Executive experience is hardly the issue, try as you might to make it so.
Now, since you began your post with an attack on me and my “need to get a clue,” l would point out that you have already given me a few clues… clues about yourself. There are many, many real, substantive reasons to criticize Barack Obama. I’m not going to go into them here. You can do the homework and look them up yourself. I see your use of “Dhimmis” when you mean “Democrats” and your ridiculous insistence on including Obama’s middle name in any mention of him as signs that you simply have been unwilling or unable to become informed about any of those substantive issues with which you could easily take both the candidate and his party to task. Your reliance on such sarcasm is a sure sign of someone who knows he could not hold his own in a real, intelligent, civil debate. Furthermore, you have assumed that since I have a viewpoint that does not mirror your own, that my beliefs must be the polar opposite. You are very much mistaken. It seems you have also assumed that since you and I disagree on the matter of Sarah Palin that I must be an uninformed idiot. Again, you are very much mistaken.
Now I will be the first to admit that I can be a cynical, sarcastic bastard. Still, I have many friends with whom I do not see eye-to-eye politically. The reason they are my friends is that I do not presume them to be morons simply because their opinions differ from my own. They extend the same common courtesy to me and we often have spirited debates. Seldom does anyone change their mind, but we all keep each other sharp and demand that everyone be informed.
You may feel free to post whatever you like about me after this, but this will be my only response to you. You, sir, and other irrational, reactionary people like you are a greater part of what has gone wrong with political discourse in this country than McCain, Palin, Obama, and Biden combined.
Took the bait, swallowed it whole and swam like hell with it! Eric’s gonna need a bigger boat.