Slavery Update

Bob McDonnell couldn’t take the pressure from the rest of the country and has amended his proclamation to include slavery. I don’t think it’s because he actually believes that, I think it’s because he felt the pressure from others to change his public thinking. He might not even be smart enough to know the real truth. After all, he did go to Pat Robertson’s Regent University. I’m sure they are proud of his original proclamation.

Bob, you’re a douche.

Might Be Time To Move

It might be time to seriously think about moving into DC. I only live about 7 miles away as it is now. It is now legal for men to marry men and women to marry women in Washington DC. I doubt we’ll see this happen in Virginia in my life time. How sad is that. I’m so close to progressive DC but yet my state is one of the most homophobic states in the country.

And while gay men and women lined up at the DC courthouse, Joe Lieberman introduced a bill in the senate to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. A bill has already been introduced in the House. Hopefully both will sail through quickly.

I love Virginia but hate that socially they are so backwards. I wish they’d catch up so I’d feel more comfortable in my own state.

Obama’s Religion

There was an article in the Washington Post today about President Obama and his faith or religion or according to some, lack thereof. The article upset me because we should not even be discussing someone’s faith/religion. Yes, I’m an atheist and don’t believe in god or religion. However, I do respect other’s right to worship whatever they want as long as they don’t push it on me.

I was reading the article and they were going on about the different ways Obama shows his religion….praying from time to time, having services at Camp David, etc. and I thought how stupid it was that people are reporting on this man’s religion.

The Obama’s haven’t selected a church in the DC area yet and that has all the religious right nutjobs in a tizzy. Obama appeared at the National Prayer Breakfast this morning. I know it’s been a tradition for Presidents to attend but I wish he hadn’t. It’s time to start cutting religion out of so much of the government. The nutjobs want Obama to use his religion to help him make decisions….instead of reason? Crazy, I know.

Anyway, after reading the article, I started reading the comments. I should really stop doing that. The majority of the people how leave comments are SO stupid!

I don’t think we should be bothered with Obama’s religion. That’s a private matter and we shouldn’t be concerned about his religion or lack thereof. We should leave the man and his family alone to use their religion the way they see fit…or not use it at all. Of course I prefer there be no religion at all…but that’s just me.

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

So they started the discussion today about throwing out don’t ask, don’t tell. Okay, here’s what I don’t understand. If they say they want to repeal don’t ask, don’t tell why are they saying they have to do a year long study to do so? Why can’t they just say, “Starting tomorrow, we will no longer prohibit gays from serving in the military.” and be done with it? What do they have to do? It’s not like they have to change anything. All the gays will still have their jobs in the military but now they can say they are gay and not be discharged for saying so. Am I missing something or is there more to it that I’m not aware of?

I’m Just Sick

Literally and figuratively.

I woke up yesterday with my voice beginning to leave me. Today it’s just about completely gone. I don’t have any cold symptoms or anything like that. My throat is a little scratchy but I don’t feel sick. I just can’t talk. It was very difficult to teach today. I actually used my computer hooked up to the sound system in my classroom to talk to my students. I used text to speech and TextEdit to have my computer speak to my students. They loved it. I got a bit tired typing. Because of this I’ve decided to take tomorrow off and not talk to anyone. Maybe that will help. I won’t be recording a podcast either.

I’m also sick of the state of our country. Just a year after inaugurating our first African-American President and winning a majority in the senate, we aren’t much better off than we were then. Of course some things have changed for the good or are on their way to change. But I just feel that we are stagnating. Things don’t seem to be moving like they should. With the male model being elected in Massachusetts health care reform and be thrown out the window. I think something will pass but it won’t be what it really needs to be. It’s been watered down as it is now. I don’t blame this on Obama at all. It’s the screwed up workings of the congress. They simply can’t get anything done. It takes way too long and costs way too much money.

I just can’t get over some of the crap going on. The Supreme Court said today that corporations could donate as much as they want to political campaigns. That means that big business will be in control more than they have been. I wouldn’t have expected anything different from the current court makeup.

While I’m glad to see that Obama is calling for regulations on big banks, I’m scared that the cost of those regulations will be passed on to consumers. It’s guaranteed. Banks will raise fees or whatever before the legislation takes effect. Look what happened on wall street today. The market dropped 200 points.

Look at what happened with credit cards. Congress tried to change how credit card companies fee us to death so they created regulation to get some control. The legislation doesn’t go into effect until next month. What has already happened? Credit card companies have changed everyone’s interest rate to variable rates so they can get more money from us now. Have you seen any fixed rate credit cards lately? None to be found.

This country is even more polarized than it was under Bush. The haves and have nots, the republicans and the democrats, the birthers, deathers, gun rights assholes, and on and on and on. I’m just so sick of all this crap. I’m so sick of stupid people. If I thought I could do it, I’d stop following all the news. But I just can’t. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t blame any of this lack of progress on Obama. I blame it completely on the congress. I still support Obama. If he is just given time and support from the congress, things could change. We might even see some progress on gay rights.