Books, History, Food, Politics, and Life

Books, History, Food, Politics, and Life
Things through a different light...

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Wasteland

It has been so busy as of late I haven't had time to really post anything...and boy have I read some books that merit attention...

Apparently revolutionary terrorist wannabes in the 1960s thought that in order to have a close order they all needed to have weird orgies, who knew right?  strange.... very strange...


Anyway,
I had a moment this morning, well it started last night and I thought to myself as I read something, pondering an old hobby I gave up because it took up way too much time and energy for what it was...

why the hell did I spend so much energy on nothing?  Was an odd moment.  I've never really grown to dislike something as much as I do this old hobby and I wonder why...like it really annoys me now.

I guess I am getting old.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

WTF moment



So here I am, reading another book for class....when a history tidbit annoyed the mess out of me.
(as many of them do)

in January of 1866, after the Civil War ended and the Congress was attempting to put together a workable Reconstruction (since the happy nice, friendly one that Johnson attempted to do at first ended up with Black Codes and all kinds of idiocy)... A Civil Rights Bill was introduced to define freedom and give people their rights....basically giving everyone born in the US specific rights regardless of race... BUT OH WAIT...not everyone....
not everyone born in the US
That's right...
NOT NATIVE AMERICANS!!!!
You mean the people who were here first?  Yea, they didn't get rights.... W  T  F

Friday, October 18, 2013

Notice!

My Update on the October Birchbox is coming!

I am behind, I admit it, but the box has been awesome.
the chapstick they included as a bonus this month is Sooooo amazing.

If you want to join birchbox though, only 12 dollars a month...
follow this link  BIRCHBOX!

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Very Random....

These are not in any way organized... just things I thought today....
because I know you want to read them right?


...Why do I need a glass of wine after reading my textbooks to calm myself down... oh history of the South course, you are in no way relaxing....

The internet has made everyone experts on everything....

why are there more cute baby girl clothes than baby boy clothes?


I want pancakes

There are parts of the Ken Burns Civil War documentary that I know by heart

Alabama and Mississippi in the 1960s...WTF

Am I a mean old lady because I live on a corner and I get annoyed when people walk through my yard?

Why is baby formula so damned expensive????

 I need a weeklong trip far far away....in a cabin...in the mountains, away from others (well except Adam and Aiden of course)

A lot of kids shows are creepy and I do not like them.....

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Political Rant

     I am pretty political.  I try not to go on facebook tyraids or berate people who disagree with me because I do not believe that is in any way constructive, but it also does not mean that I am void of strong opinions.
Oh and by the way...this is not Facebook... I AM NOT  trying to debate you on the fine points of the argument, this is how I feel... This is my sounding board, thanks.

I have very strong opinions.

The government shut down struck a nerve with me for a few reasons.

1. Obstructionism is the bane of the democratic design.  Stomping your figurative political foot because a law went into effect that you did not like, does not mean you can lock the doors and ruin everyone else's day.  This is not a glowing review of the ACA (Obamacare), I am not satisfied with the Health Care law... I do not believe it will fix the inherent problems in the health care system that comes from the fact that health care for the average American is too expensive and the industry is too much of a profit making business to work properly for the health of all involved.  At the same time, I think that perhaps the ACA is a starting point, and we can move forward from it and perhaps work towards a system that will give affordable health care to anyone who gets sick.
My high minded pretentious self only says this...
Anyone who thinks a person's income should determine whether or not they should be able to go to the doctor when they are sick... needs to take some compassion lessons and stop being so heartless.

2.  You aren't doing anything for the betterment of the country when you sit on your ass and get paid 174k dollars a year while hundreds of thousands of federal employees are furloughed because you cannot find the time in your busy post office naming and vacation taking schedule to do your damned job.  If anything has actually pushed me to the point of ranting...it is the fact that congress makes WAY too much money to be so completely useless.  I do not see how anyone votes in any of these guys that voted to put people who make 1/5th of what these guys make just to make a point about how they dont like a healthcare bill.  Honestly guys... pass a bill...Your record is dismal, you are now historically the LEAST PRODUCTIVE CONGRESS IN HISTORY.  

3. Be Real.
Listen, if you are Ted Cruz and for some reason you are so insane that you somehow believe that Obamacare is going to ruin the planet and will lower us back into a state of serfdom or whatever spew you are trying to get votes with...perhaps you should stand beside your own decisions.  When you stood up and read Green Eggs and Ham or told everyone to shut down the government (yes I know those two things are separate) and that our debt default isnt a bad thing  (you are insane for that by the way dude)... you were standing up against something you say you believed in.  Well... just practice what you preach.  If you want to shut down the government like a grown up toddler, FINE...do that.  But do not have the audacity to show up at a veteran's rally in PROTEST against the government shut down because some monuments were closed because YOUR decision furloughed the employees.... 
IF you believed in what you were spewing to get more TV time so you could fantasize about your eventual dismal presidential run....then you would fully back the closure of those parks, because you were proving a point.  BUT noooo Ted.... you showed up, protesting the evils of shutting down that memorial...with SARAH PALIN...to do what, play to cameras and genuinely attempt to dupe people who support you into thinking you were on their side.... 
I know it is a lot to ask a politician to be honest...
but it shouldnt be....

So yea, I can be political and I try not to be bellicose about it or aggressive to people I disagree with, even when they post memes that are completely baseless and wrong....
but I do have opinions... and this whole shutdown facade to get more votes so people can keep their house seats and their easy pay or so people can keep their leadership positions all while literally screwing over the population riles even me up.  


Monday, October 14, 2013

Oh People...

Have you ever heard of "The Kissing Case"?

Here it is....  The Kissing Case

Now I read about it in a book on the Civil Rights movement... but this has to be one of the MOST INSANE things I've ever read...and it makes you wonder


what the hell was wrong with people.

these kids were 8 and 10 years old and they were arrested, put in handcuffs, taken to the jail, beaten..and held for 4 months on molestation charges because a little girl kissed them on the cheek....


1958... is not that long ago.  There are tons of people who are still alive from that period and you know what... this sort of deep down hate that puts little boys in jail and makes a person think its ok to beat them...
so odd to me.  

Friday, October 11, 2013

Why I Probably Will Never See "Breaking Bad"

This is not a blog about TV hateration.  I do not, can not, and will not hate on a person for their tv preference... I watch Downton Abbey and Vampire Diaries for goodness sake.  This is not a Breaking Bad sucks blog.... Many of the people I know and respect on a cultural level give the show a thumbs up and that means it must be good.  But at this point, I feel like the kid two years ago that was like... So what's this show Deadwood... I heard it was catchy...

I can't watch Breaking Bad... Even if an old x-files alum does write it... Because it will never be as awesome as it's been made out to be.  I know the end result, I know the inevitable downward spiral ends bad for Walter  White... I know he liked it...  We've all had shows, books, movies that end this way and it's always odd like... Guys I'm too late for this party, meet you at episode two of Orange is the New Black (which disappointed me by seasons end btw)

Monday, October 7, 2013

Do Not Beat The Help!

James Henry Hammond...not cool guy...

Remember that guy up there??  James Henry Hammond, the pro-slavery, states rights, once governor of South Carolina??

Oh man... we have to talk about him again because he just will not go away. 

First... James here had some depression/anxiety problems, we talked about it.   After he had some success in government, James had to quit and evacuate on a tour of Europe for his health.

(this was an excuse James gave quite often to get himself out of something he didn't like, and his first term in Washington was not exactly rainbows and moonbeams so he quit. To be fair... I do not think James feigned illness after he got caught messing around with four of his nieces...but that is another story entirely)




James had a hard time in Europe.  He didn't like the rich English people who looked down on him and he didn't understand all these working free ignorant people (I am not kidding here guys...not kidding).

Maybe he saw this...

But in his mind saw this...

Regardless of what this guy was thinking, this is what happened:

(shortened and such for blog entertainment)

James Henry and his wife Catherine (poor woman he married for her money), after touring England, France, and Italy...went on a German tour.  Outside of one area, they stopped at an Inn and James did not particularly like the service the staff gave him so he left without paying his bill.  Perhaps because in South Carolina planters believed themselves to be little gods or whatever, but James was a bit taken aback when suddenly one of the employees of the establishment went outside and attempted to stop Hammond's carriage from leaving before he paid his tab.  This would NOT do for 'ol James from South Carolina who was used to doing whatever he pleased in a world where the people who answered to had to or he would beat them...  James decided it was fine and dandy to beat the guy on the head until he was bloody, because of course...he could do that at home with insolent servants right (this guy really thought this!!!)???  Well, James landed in jail because in Europe, even peasants had some rights...how crazy.
I almost forgot, in the middle of all this crazy, Hammond's wife had a baby (that he did not name because he wanted a girl and he wasn't prepared for a boy).  In a rush to flee the country he was in before getting in trouble with the law again because James paid his bail but was expected to appear in court to face the charges against him, the baby died in the carriage.  

Oh James, I finished the book about you so sadly our time is done.

P.S.

At the end of the Civil War when the south began to lose and Hammond heard the shells hitting places like Savannah from his house in South Carolina (close to Augusta too), he was really shocked when his slaves didn't smile at him or adore him and instead looked hopeful and scorned at him...REALLY DUDE??  REALLY??  He wrote about it, like he was really taken aback because they didn't love him.  He sent them gifts from Europe damnit!!  

Adieu James, it was fun. 

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Why Government is Stupid

Beyond the fact that this is now historically the most unproductive congress... 
Beyond the fact that grown adults who are getting paid (even now) 174k a year to do their jobs and basically refusing to do it because they have no working knowledge of the foundations of our government and the definition of the word compromise....
Beyond the fact that almost a million people are out of work for absolutely no reason and these idiots cannot even stop their own egos to realize those people need their pay too...
(a few bright minds of congress complained about how hard it would be to pay for their nice houses and their kids' college tuition if they didn't get their pay)

Real people are hurting and things that I believe are foundations of our freedom...are unavailable to the public.


1. WIC - Yes I know a lot of people who I find heartless believe that the women and children receiving WIC should learn to do with less...and I say to those people, I wonder if you know what it is like to go hungry.  WIC provides food for women who meet certain income requirements for their children up until the age of two, and WIC is important.  I cannot even comprehend some of the horrible things I've seen people say about this program not working.
"Good!  Maybe they will go get jobs!"
"GOOD, I don't GET ANYTHING FOR FREE."
"Teach those lazy people a lesson for ruining our government."  Yes...someone said that in reference to people on WIC, not congress... who the hell knows what is wrong with these people.
I just have a really hard time looking at an infant and going...GOOD, starve now kid, learn what its like to go without...

2. The closure of the National Parks

Ocmulgee National Park - Macon, GA
 This really angers me ....
First... most of the people who work for our national parks make very little money.
Second...national parks were created for our citizens to enjoy the beauty and history of our country...to close them just seems specifically unAmerican.  But... it goes deeper than that.
Did you know the fall is one of the most important times of the year for National Parks?  They get a great percentage of their visitors RIGHT NOW.  That also means the towns that hold some of these bigger national parks, where the tourism to those parks mean a great deal of income in the area...get nothing... no tourists, no income...more people out of work.

BUT....
Do not despair people.... Congress is still getting paid so they can afford their nice houses and kids' college.  Don't worry because they have vowed to keep the government closed as long as it takes to defeat the evils of attempting to provide healthcare for people who don't get it.

In other countries...when the government does stupid, obstructive, and destructive things like this...they lose their jobs.

Will these guys?  Will we remember this??  I hope so.
I hope every single person that doesn't get paid remembers this and we have a really high turnover rate next time congressional elections come up.

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Melancholy and the Infinite Southerner....

This handsome devil...

and I am not being silly... people thought he was handsome


 is James Henry Hammond.  James had an illustrious career in the antebellum south.  He was a lawyer, a school teacher (if you want to talk about someone loathing a job), a newspaper editor, a senator, a governor...  This guy did it all.

He was also pretty weird.  This guy was prone to fits of depression that worried his father so much that he sent for him to come live at home.  He worshiped the Romantics, wrote poetry, but at the same time wanted to be known in the South and beat a guy over the head with a stick because he didn't appreciate the verbal war between the two going on in their respective newspapers.  
He relentlessly pursued women a few times, but also was rumored to have had a homosexual affair in college with a friend of his...there are letters between the two that pretty much lay it out there, but you know..... who knows.

This guy just is... well... different.

First, his father really did a number on him.  He didn't beat him, he didn't treat him like crap...he pushed him and always worried about his son failing because well, in truth... he kind of did, a lot.  Elisha Hammond could never really get to the success level he wanted and he tried through a lot of different avenues, like being the steward at South Carolina College which paved the way here for the first goth kid to get into school.  He tried farming, he tried teaching, he tried different boom businesses, but James' dad could never make it.
Strangely enough (and if you know me... really strange)
Elisha Hammond got a job directing a school in Macon, Georgia when he was really down on his luck in the 1820s.  He moved to middle Georgia, bought a place... and the school he worked for kept not paying him, so again he was in financial straits.  He died here... depressed and unhappy...WOW.  LOL..

cozy!

Fort Hawkins there (already out of use I think) might have been one of the only things IN Macon at the time when Elisha set up shop... LOL  

Second...this guy really thought he sucked.  I mean it didnt matter how many compliments, how many successes, what he did... he thought he sucked.  He wrote about being the most unhappy man on earth, he talked about leaving the state tons of times as a failure... and all the while the VP of the US is coming to his place and having a chat....uhh... OK guy... 

He did like slavery and nullification though, oh man... you get him talking about that and there was no stopping him. 
 

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

The illustrious Life of a grad student


It is 10:30 PM.  Early for a lot of people I know.  For me... It is past bedtime.  We stayed up a bit to watch the Bourdain episode from Sunday because we had to fit in the week's grocery shopping tonight  (family obligation Friday night when we usually shop).  Now, after a few distractions today... I am attempting to catch up via my fancy book light. Aiden woke up from a bad dream so, we've got him back to bed and I am learning all about James Henry Hammond.

Those Pesky Poor People

If there is one thing I do not find offense when I get called a name... it is "bleeding heart liberal."  I do not truly know when it became a weakness or a bad thing to care about those less fortunate than myself, but if it does place a negative mark on me, so be it.  I would rather be that than one who disregards those who suffer, or one who tries to stigmatize the poor to make themselves feel better when they do not care about them...

For class recently I've read books that address the poor in the nation, not just on a racial scale and not simply in our time period... but from the 16th and 17th century in England where many believed that the poor should be institutionalized or shipped off to another place and made to do hard labor because for whatever reason... they did not make enough to be successful.

While I do not attend church every Sunday and I do not believe that one needs any form of religion to be compassionate or caring... it does pretty much say, very clearly in the bible to take care of the poor, to not ridicule the poor, and to treat them with the love you would want to be treated with in return... and yet in America... well... we don't do that do we?


When a Conservative analyst today on television said that food programs being cut due to government shutdown wasn't the end of the world...he obviously did not think about all the kids who rely on those programs to get fed every single day.  Because he does not care.

Just like the English rich didn't care if the poor starved, or died, or whatever... they just didnt want the blight in front of them or to look at the reasons WHY the people were poor in the first place....

lazy, idle, brutish even...those were the words used to describe a people displaced during a huge population boom that resulted in the scarcity of jobs available to them to work and feed their families....

and today.... have we looked at the poor, or are we too fixed on the fact that you may see a woman with her nails painted and owning a cell phone in a grocery store line buying food with food stamps...because that is the excuse...

there is always an excuse to turn our eyes away and feeling ok about being callous.  

But it really is not ok.

What about those kids....what about the old and infirm...what about the disabled.... what about the mom working two jobs at minimum wage and cannot afford to get a third because she might lose the small amount of benefits she gets....

what about the people who've lived in poverty all their lives and know nothing else....who go to schools that are underfunded and are sent to high school dropout factories that just rotate them back out into the minimum wage working world where they get screamed at if they do not facilitate someone's burger order perfectly every single time...

I dont pretend to even know what that is like, nor do I want to to know... but if a few of my tax dollars goes to help those people...GOOD.  I wish we could do more, I wish we weren't so jaded and automatically angry, and so insightful about every single poor person's life that we just KNOW they are lazy and abusing the system.

Really really bothers me...