Oh, indeed!

NOW I WANT ALL THE TORO!

Well the view from the balcony tonight was very cool! The fireworks started early. Not the city displays. But all the illegal stuff. Going off all over the LA basin. I have no clue where they were firing from, but they started around 8:20pm. The city displays started at 9. The illegal fireworks were like the prelude to the big shows, and the dessert course after. It was very cool. Not spectacular, like being right there AT the fireworks display. But more like a constant ripple of colors all over the place. Very! Cool! Maybe the best fireworks viewing I've ever seen. Certainly the longest. Really fun to just have your eye pulled in each direction seeing something going off.

Looks like we had a great little debate in here. I love that we can be honest with each other in here. I'm proud to be an American, just not proud of where it is going of late. The race to the bottom, the greed over humanity. And the distorting of American ideals into a Theocracy. I am in love with the potential that America holds. And I really wish we cold get back on course. Is America the greatest country on Earth? No. It was. It could be again, but we have steered off course. And I welcome you to watch the first episode of Newsroom, which expressed why America isn't the greatest country anymore. God Bless Aaron Sorkin.

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ION - Smonster, not sure he's the guy for you.

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IcondoN - Two shopping trips today. One to Target to get some cleaning materials and drawer liners. The other to Home Depot to get first round of paint before the sale ran out. While at Home Depot, Mom started cleaning the kitchen. It was in a little grubby condition. The fridge was starting to get furry inside. She did a great job on the counters and fridge. Tomorrow she will tackle the oven, and continue to remove the icky old shelf liners, and hopefully install new stuff. I'm going to start to spackle the holes in the walls, and prep for Paint Day on Saturday. Still trying to find the right primary wall color. The silver we picked looks great in swatch, but too close to white when on the wall. The living room accent is too bland/blue/green. And apparently, since the old paint is a bit of a gloss to it, we need to scuff it up to get the new paint to stick better??? So, after spackle, it's scuff time.

For those of you on Facebook, the girl arguing about my octopus tie on SailAweigh's picture is my FSIL. That's right, my brother's fiancée is pedantic about cephalopods.

That's right, my brother's fiancée is pedantic about cephalopods.

As well she should be.

But dating a jackass is worse.

Life's too short for jackassery, smonster. Onwards and upwards. Or just be you for a while.

Well on the patriotism front, I'm going to go on both sides of all y'all. I'm actually kinda okay with being regarded as anti-American. For one, it stuck my family in internment camps, and I figure I don't have to forget that. I will always know what ugliness this country is capable of, and that will always color my view of it. I deal daily with the abuse of a people group who by rights shouldn't have had to let us all in, and that factors too.

(As an aside, it's also why I'm not thrilled about health care provided directly by the State; I've seen it, and it's not pretty. I saw a doctor shaking so bad he was unable to remove a (spoilerfonted for phobias) needle (needle!) from a kid's arm. It had to stay there for a month, badly infected, until he could get to a larger BIA facility in Anchorage. I saw a doctor quit rather than provide the simple paperwork that said he fucked up setting an elderly woman's broken arm, the paperwork that would allow her to be treated by the non-tribal local hospital, thus leaving her in pain for multiple months while caring for her adult quadriplegic daughter. And those are just a few of the ones I personally drove to the clinics. Admittedly there is also institutional racism involved, so maybe a genuinely public health system would not be prone to it, but I have my serious doubts.)

I am also spending my (last ever, woes!) week at the Christian music festival I've been going to, so I am pretty hyped up with my anarchist buddies at the moment, so that may be fueling the anti- in me.

Do I acknowledge the country has numerous good points? Absolutely. Do I regard it as fundamentally deeply flawed? Yes, yes I do.

On the other hand, I am also strangely pro-military for a pacifist. I believe that war is absolutely wrong and that it irreparably harms valuable people on both sides of any conflict. I acknowledge that this leaves me with no solution for a Hitler, so I preemptively-Godwin's law you. But I also have a deep respect for the men and woman who choose to put themselves in harm's way for my sake, regardless of how I feel about its necessity, so I am grateful to them on this holiday for fighting for my freedom.

Now.

About the theocracy. I would still like to say to those Christians that they r doin it rong. Not saying I'm doing it right, and I know that regardless of my actions, my believing in a deity is tantamount to delusional to some of you. I like to say that I'm a non-practicing agnostic. I don't think it's ever possible to know if there's a god or not, I just choose to act as if there were, in response to what I perceive happening around me.

But I also would like you to know that there is Christianity out there that is trying to care for the poor in exactly the manner that you think they ought. Today I went to a seminar that examined Nietzschean criticism of Christianity to see what was correct and how we could better live out some of the issues at hand. I saw a completely multicultural pile of people dancing to a completely multicultural band. (I also have a Jilli-fied dress that is now a pink and black stripey dress that used to be a black and white stripey dress before I got drenched in stage blood. And then went to an acoustic show.) But it's community, and it's a genuine attempt at love. Tomorrow I'm going to a series of seminars on poverty, race, and community development, led by a guy whose primary deal is a Christian urban environmental charity. Friday I'm talking to a guy who runs a non-traditional church in Minnesota that helps gets girls out of sex slavery.

And yes, there are still things said that you would not approve of, but it's coming from a place of genuine reflection and attempt at understanding. There's lots of stupid going on too, but hey, it's humanity.

I guess what I'm (continued...)

( continues...) longwindedly trying to say is, don't give up on all of us yet. I'm sorry for the way Christians and the church have hurt you and it's wrong. It's not what the Christ I know would have wanted.

Whew.

I suspect this is like a drunk post, because it's 4:00 in the morning and I have to get up in three hours and do it again, and I broke both my "Don't talk about politics" and my "Don't talk about religion" on the internet rules in one post, but I guess I just wanted to say it.

I'm sorry, on behalf of the church.

Excellent post, Liese. I do think that the hateful idiots who present as Christian are a significant, vocal, and disproportionately influential segment of the church. As for those people claiming to be Christian and invoking the name of God to justify their evil, I honestly believe that is what is meant by 'taking the Lord's name in vain.'

Liese, I'm glad you broke your rules. I don't have any thinky in me right now about your post, but maybe later. For now - thank you for that.

And apparently, since the old paint is a bit of a gloss to it, we need to scuff it up to get the new paint to stick better???

This is true.

Lordy, I am tired. And I realized I didn't submit my hours for Monday or Tuesday, so I may only get paid for three days instead of five. Oh, forgetful brain, I try to circumvent you and yet you manage to still forget really important things.

Liese, thank you for posting all of that. For the tiny bit it might be worth, this:

I don't think it's ever possible to know if there's a god or not, I just choose to act as if there were, in response to what I perceive happening around me.

is as sensible a thing as I ever heard anyone say.

Liese, that's an excellent post. I think it points out a lot of the flaws with our country in a realistic way. America is founded on some excellent ideals that have been very imperfectly carried out. We have a lot to account for and many improvements still to make. Maybe one day we'll get there. We need more voices to be heard, especially ones like yours. I read your posts here and it gives me heart to see people walking the walk and not just talking the talk. And it makes me happy to see you speak up about it.

I read your posts here and it gives me heart to see people walking the walk and not just talking the talk. And it makes me happy to see you speak up about it.

Yes! Agreed.