Holy Buck, Fatman!

I’ve never written about this here. Perhaps I didn’t want to jinx anything. Maybe I thought it wasn’t my story to tell, I realized something, though. There is a part of this story that is mine to tell.

When I’m trying to ignore just about everything that I have to do at work, (well, not really–I’m just really bored) I am usually found lurking at this corner of the ‘net. A few months previous, I read a story written by a guest contributor detailing her fight with PTSD after returning from Iraq. While fighting debilitating panic attacks, insomnia and other ailments she also had to fight another fight against the Veteran’s Administration. As I read her story, I sat there, thinking, “Why should this happen? I thought that the VA was established to help Vets who were in need!” It’s true, the VA was established for that very reason. It’s just that they had been failing so many soldiers returning from Iraq. It wasn’t fair.

I few months previous, she wrote another update and by that time, I had gotten to know a Marine vet from Vietnam who held a position at the VA that could help her out. He cared passionately for all who served and would do anything to help the troops who needed it. After reading her update regarding yet another defeat from the VA, I decided that some thing had to give. Someone else needed to look at her Case. Someone who knew. Someone who actually gave a shit. So I did what I thought was right. I put her in contact with my friend from the VA.

I heard that evening that they had spoken and he had put her in contact with several people. Over time, I would receive updates from both ends. She said it was more hope then she had in a year. My VA friend said that he was doing all he could to help. Soon, someone from her congressional district was in touch. and Finally–yesterday, there was this.

The weekend before I had a conversation with another vet to whom I relayed the story to. What he told me after I told him what I had done was simply astonishing. He said, “Anyone can slap a magnetic ribbon on their car and say they support the troops. What you did is a true act of patriotism because you helped someone who needed it. Chances are she knows other troops and will tell them and the word will spread. Suddenly, before you know it, things will start to change because others will start to help.”

I replied, “I just put someone in touch with someone else.” Still kind of stunned by his statement.

“It’s a start. It’s more than most.”

It is a start. A small one, but a start nonetheless. Through the internet, I connected one person with someone who could help her out. The tubes, once again, a catalyst.

A little note: My Friend at the VA just recently launched a call center to help with the volume of calls that the VA has been dealing with. While this is also another small start, he believes that it will help those who feel like they aren’t getting enough help. Another friend is assisting on the launch of a program designed to help returning troops transition from their combat tours to life back with their families and jobs. They are extremely optimistic about these programs and I hear about them every day. I know they’re working hard to make sure that all our Vets get the treatment they need.

Have a great Memorial day weekend, folks.

Yesterday, while I drove back home from the train station, I was listening to all things considered while enjoying the good weather we’d be having. Normally, the snippets are short but informing and hardly ever infuriate me. However, listening to this over privileged southern white woman mask her racism by justifying a shitty ad against Obama because of what a former preacher in his church had said. “He’s just to extreme for North Carolina” The Ad states. The ad ties Obama with two NC democratic governors who are endorsing Obama. What? Why? What is the reason for this ad?

Huh?

Listening to the woman talk in her demure southern voice just kept getting under my skin. She spoke slowly, choosing her words rather carefully as she didn’t really want people to know what the ad really was about. Of Course, there were a few dog whistles in her carefully chosen words. “Freedom of Speech”, “A State Issue” “About the People of North Carolina”

Having once been a resident of a State I haven’t set foot in since 1996, I knew EXACTLY why she was running this ad. Back in 1996, Jesse “Don’t let THAT Boy Win” Helms was in a tight race for Senate against Harvey Gantt, Former Mayor of Charlotte, NC, successful business owner and a black man. While it was NO SECRET that Helms is one of those Strom Thurmond like southern Good “Ole Boys, he was quite challenged by Gantt and pulled all punches to make sure his base remained in perpetual fear of a black man being charge. During the election, residents of NC were subjected to perpetual ads using multiple racist dog whistles that appealed to Helm’s steady base of rich white people.

Listening to this Linda Davies speak in her slow, calculated way conjured up images of the country club community I once lived in while in High School. People would be cordial, welcoming and rather warm. When they heard my mother was Puerto Rican, well….that was it. We never saw them again. The same thing happened while I attended school there. All the kids were generally nice–except after the project on our genealogy came up. It was reveled that I was half Hispanic and although I’m fair skinned, I was also seen as less of a human in certain circles. I was called “Poodle head Spic” by the boys. There were no other Hispanic people in my school. There were only 5 black kids and they had developed a rather thick skin. Hardly anyone spoke to them and they had a tight nit group. The One black teacher was fired for teaching Black History during February after some parents complained. he was fired because of “alledged abuse of Alchohol.” He was a teacher of mine and I never thought he was ever drunk. In fact, I thought him to be quite interesting as he was involved in the Greensboro Woolworth’s sit in.

I felt like I needed to keep my background a secret, so I did. I identified as Polish from that point on and never spoke of my mothers family. Woman who met my parents would say, ” You know, those people” and my parents knew what they were speaking about. It was an ever present attitude that seemed to drape the State like the Ghost of Jim Crowe. I never understood what that ghost was until some years later.

It’s clear the ghost hasn’t been exercised.

A self important LIRR asshole (which, incidentally, is ten times worse then the MARC Train) has been acquitted of being a self important asshole. Nothing like this to empower all self important cockstains on commuter trains all over the US.

I’ve been a train rider for the better part of 6 years now. I’ve run into a few of these self important asshole. One story in particular comes to mind.

It was early one morning and my friend and I boarded the 7am local train to DC. The train car we were seated on was empty except for me, my friend and two other riders. My friend and I were engaged in a conversation at a normal decibel, when someone said something.

“It’s just so nice to have to listen to OTHER PEOPLES CONVERSATION!” he snapped and angrily crinkled his newspaper.

“Sir, if you have a problem with our conversation, the MARC train has  a quiet car, you are more then welcome to sit there if you don’t want to be bothered.” I said, in a nice tone.

“THIS IS NOT YOUR LIVING ROOM! I SHOULDN’T HAVE TO LISTEN TO YOU TALK!!!!” he said, now agitated that I suggested that he move to the designated quiet car.

“Well, This is also PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION! if you don’t like it, you have two options, the quiet car or DRIVE YOURSELF!”

The guy turned to the gentleman behind him and said, “The nerve of some people bothering others in the morning!”

The guy replied, “Dude, get yourself an ipod.”

The difference between the LIRR and the MARC train is the MARC’s inclusion of a quiet car. If a train is busy and I find myself on the quiet car for whatever reason, the cell goes on vibrate and I usually sleep.  Respectful, yes—it’s the rules. I have sat near numerous cellphone squawkers, too. Sure, they have no couth, but seriously—this is what you get when you ride public transportation. You get an eclectic mix of all kinds of weird people. Some are respectful, some are not so much.YOU HAVE TO DEAL WITH IT. That, or deal with driving on the capital beltway. And that is a special kind of hell!

Let me tell you this: If some asshole did what that LIRR Cockstain did, I wouldn’t be so respectful. It wouldn’t be pretty. I’ve been doing this for far too long to put up with some self serving vigilante type who fancies himself a guardian of decorum in public places. In NYC, of all cities! Didn’t someone shoot up the LIRR at one point? If assholes like this ride all the time, then well….I can see why someone would be driven to point of such madness.

Is right here. You WILL NOT be disappointed!

I probably STILL pay more tax then these neo maxi zoom dweebies.

The detachment of the uber rich in this country is astounding. The way they see it, this whole economic crisis is nothing more then a media fear mongering issue. The people who live in their neighborhoods, play golf at their country clubs and attend meetings at their children’s schools all seem to be doing just fine. What is all the fuss about? The people who take care of their children, manicure their lawns and clean their homes all see to be doing just fine as well. Besides, they believe that all that chatter about foreclosures is nothing more then a few people making some bad financial decisions. “It’s all their own fault, they should have read the terms of their loans!” is the common phrase repeated.

These unabashed worshipers of complete deregulation really want the person without the personal responsibility to simply read their mortgage terms and stop messing with the investment bankers who are gambling that they will be able to afford to pay back their mortgages.

I remember the days when I was house hunting. when discussing loans, creative loans were described to me as a vehicle to buy an extremely overpriced crappy ass McMansion in Suburban Utopia if you expected your income to increase significantly within a five year period. So, I understood it this way: you want to buy a 500K house? Well, hope your a first year attorney expected to pull in a partner’s salary within the next few years!  I poopooed the idea of Interest Only loans because I didn’t see a SIGNIFICANT increase in my future. Well, folks, I was right. and you know what? No one else has seen significant increases in their salaries, either. the promises of jobs galore have pretty much bitten the dust. The risk that the idiot investment bankers have taken on didn’t quite pan out. So, Overblown prices in housing and stagnant wages have given way to what? Foreclosures!!!!! Instead of people making more cash by their reset l;ike they had expected to, people found themselves either at the same place they were some years ago or worse: out of jobs completely. What’s even worse is the Rich idiots who bought million dollar homes as “an investment” expecting the equity to increase forever only to be told by their banks: “Sorry, we are yanking your HELOC because you have no equity anymore. Sorry, no vacations for you!” Astoundingly enough, some of these homeowners have decided to “walk away” from their investment and simply take the foreclosure. Personal Responsibilty? nahhhh…fuck that. this wasnt what they expected….it was supposed to be a retirement fund.

This is what pisses me off to no end: It’s okay to let the “Market work” when talking about the regular middle class folk who are constantly getting ass raped in the name of Market forces. It’s okay to rail against those same people when they get into trouble and need help because “Market forces” didn’t seem to work when it came to wages. (you know, real wages actually decreased, people)

It’s perfectly OK to use taxpayer money to bail out a HUGE bank who was deemed “too big to fail”. They made some shitty investment decisions and well, it wasn’t really their fault–it was you, stupid homeowner. YOU did this.  We can’t let the rich people drown in their own bathtub of crappy securities…..Market Forces be damned. We have to save OUR INVESTMENT PORTFOLIOS!!!!

and that is the real story so far,,,

Cheers to the Mom who isn’t afraid of her own shadow. It’s about time a mom says, “Hey learn some responsibilty, I trust you–you can do it. I taught you what to do if there is danger—take it from here”

Jeers to the fucktards who seal their kids in bubbles only to have them grow up dysfunctional and unable to take care of themselves. All 51% of you assholes.

sheesh.

It’s 1:30pm on a Tuesday afternoon and I am sitting in my Downtown DC office listening to my streaming public radio station, WYPR. Except there is something inherently wrong with the whole scene. Right now, I’m used to listening to the Marc Steiner show which allows me participation in discussion about issues that effect me directly as a resident of Baltimore City. As of Friday, February 1, 2008, there is no Marc Steiner show. Instead, I’m half listening to some bullshit broadcast out of New York City. What the fuck do I care about some stupid ass NY Giants ticker tape parade or Mardi Gras coverage out of New Orleans? Where is the community discussion regarding issues effecting Baltimore City and Maryland as a whole? WTF?!?!?!!?!?

Marc has read several of my e mail responses on the air regarding several issues of importance to me. When Gerry, the older guy who calls in every day to rant loudly, Marc listened and always politely told him when his time was up BUT–always gave him an audience. He wasn’t ever rude to his listeners even when they had an opposing viewpoint. His guests ranged from John Waters and Cal Ripken Jr. to Governors O’ Malley, Ehrlich, as well as various Congress Critters, Senators and State, City and County Legislators. (even Molly Ringwald which delighted my inner sixteen year old to no end) He always reminded his guests that each of them would have a chance to respond equally and discouraged ad hominem attacks and yelling. His special broadcast about the Vietnam war and the vets who fought were both touching and haunting.

I tuned in yesterday and thought, “Oh, must be a day off”. I didn’t it give much thought. Imagine my surprise when I caught the Today section of the Sun Paper on my way to DC this AM. HUH?!?!?!?!? While I enjoy the Kojo Nnamdi show on WAMU, it’s not very informative regarding Baltimore/Maryland issues. Sheiliah Kast’s Maryland Morning is a fine show, but it doesn’t really allow for much audience participation. Today she spoke with Marc and Tony Brandon regarding the separation. Tony blames ratings as his number one reason to let Marc go.

I call total and utter bullshit.

Marc responded today on his blog. His decision to leave without taking the “hush money” is admirable. We are now witnessing the death of community radio and real community coverage of issues effecting all of us at a local level.

I haven’t listened to FM radio since clear channel invaded the airwaves changing how we are fed information. Local news is all owned by large conglomerates and only reports sensationalists news beside human interest fluff pieces that lend little or nothing to the efforts of local community leaders in their work to improve our lives. I can’t stand foolish morning shows on silly radio stations and crave intelligent discourse on issues either national or local. When JHU changed to WYPR, I made the switch permanent.

It’s insane to take away the only show that the local audience directly participated in and state that it had to do with ratings. Ratings? What are you measuring the ratings against? Tony Brandon’s letter to the listeners explaining the rash decision tells us that all other shows such as Fresh Air, The Diane Rehm show and a host of other NPR sydicates won’t be affected. Uh…But….what about local discussion?

It’s seems that some of Marc’s discussion topics were really making the corporate underwriters very unhappy. Feathers were ruffled some time back and this separation, as Marc details in his latest blog post, was a long time coming as they slowly removed him from decision making positions over time. Of course, I’m speculating, but what other conclusion can I arrive at? I’ve always maintained that control of the public will NOT be from the government, but from corporations that manipulate the flow of information to the people. They need us and will go to great lengths to ensure that we, the public, believe they are acting in OUR best interests. ha. riiiiiiiiiight.

Local Maryland/Baltimore discussion will have to reinvent itself in the last bastion of free expression: the internet. We see a ton of local blogs that highlight local issues, events and discussions happening around the city and the state. While some are personal anecdotes of dealing with crime, BG$E rate increases, Property taxes, The suckitude of the Orioles and various commentary on local events, we do have some informative community blogs that tackle straight news and announcements about town. We need more.

Don’t let the discussion on local issues die with a few rich assholes who claim they’re going to keep local discussion alive. At this point in time I can only assume that if they even allow the public a forum to discuss issues, it won’t be on topics that damage the reputation of the almighty corporation. Clean, nice fluff that appeals to more *ahem* dare I say it, conservative viewpoints will probably be showcased.

I was going to donate this year. I’m not any longer. As for listening at work, I’ll have to settle for Kojo. He might not deal with issues effecting my locality, but at least he prompts local discussion.

If you’ve been keeping up with anything about the collective stupidity/greed that rich wall street investors got caught up, you’ll know that they’ve made some pretty bad decisions. Did you know that these bad decisions they made laregly effect YOUR 401k?

Go on—take a look at your 401k. See how it’s preforming terribly? If you were to pull up the portfolio holdings in your funds you allocated your money to–I’m almost certain you’ll see all kinds of Big Shitpile (including Credit card backed Securities)  in there. I was MORTIFED to see my international fund was largely made up of—you guessed it—Stock in Societe Generale.  Fuck.

I reallocated. I threw just about everything back into a very conservative fund backed by muni/tresury bonds to ride out the storm and starve off any more nasty losses. For awhile, this should ensure me some stable growth, albeit slow.

Since it’s a few days before a major holiday, I’m pretty slow at the job. This allows for a little more time to surf the tubes and stumble upon laughable blogs like this guys personal diatribe against anyone with a Vagina. Well, anyone with a vagina that dares to have an actual opinion. Or speaks, for that matter. Or exists. Well, I doubt he’d object to them existing since they allow for him to get off. Even if it is just reading old penthouse forums while beating off.

I couldn’t help but laugh as I scrolled through each “Women are out ta get you!” post. I’ve read many Pro MRA websites and they all seem to have one major thing in common: Somewhere, in the past they were wronged in some way. Either the bitch ex wife took them for all their cash or they got cheated on or their wives refused to suck their dicks when they demanded it. It’s all the same: the Bitch had the Fucking nerve! I can always find the post that alludes to the incident that gives birth to the scorned MRA. In this case, Mr. Birdseye’s “Japanese Wife” (which, no DOUBT he believed that marrying a Japanese woman would be better because they have been known to be more subservient to their husbands) had the gall to cheat on him. Of course, it’s his side of the story. We can’t be expected to actually believe that he *MIGHT* have failed his marriage by not believing what marriage is: a partnership of compromise, communication and understanding. Oh hell no. It was all the bitch’s fault. Fuck dat cheatin’ ho.

I kept reading and laughing —so much so that I sent some of these posts to my husband who characterized his mindset perfectly:

Posts like this are a result of Biguns and those other 3rd rate Hustler wanna be rags being put out of print because of internet porn. Next post: “When I Met Jackie at the Ski Lodge”.

Seriously!

Women don’t need to argue with him. They just need to make sure that he *NEVER GETS LAID AGAIN* That’s pretty simple to do since it’s more then probable that he’s not getting laid right now. Penis size might be part of the problem, too. I suspect that it has more to do with his bitterness, though.

Anyhow, his last post was by far, the best—a vast liberal feminist conspiracy to create a new north American currency. Except that there is no such thing. This guy is so clouded with bitter fury that he can’t even think logically.

Anyway, MRA’s aren’t to be argued with. They are there for our amusement, because there isn’t anything more hilarious then a guy scorned.