Laugh or Cry? "Match.com" for your vote!

I love NPR.  I love the poor sound quality and the donation drives and everything else about it.  But why would they spread this around?  It is a link to a website that has you fill out a "Yes or No" questionnaire and then it tells you who to vote for.   I guess sometimes we are too busy to think for ourselves?

I did it though.  Apparently, all my Obamalove was for nothing because I'm a closet Green Party supporter.  I only matched 89% with Obama but 94% with Jill Stein.  As I type, I feel an identity crisis coming on....DAMN YOU NPR!!




Here's a picture of dog stuck in a hammock:

That makes me feel better because I'll never be as confused as he is.

Oh Ann....

Check out what little Miss Class had to say about Monday night's Presidential debates. 

From The Huffington Post:  Ann Coulter Calls Obama A 'Retard'

Thank you Ann.  You are a shining example of what is wrong with today's media.

hy·per·bo·le: Exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.

Tonight, I would like to rant about Ann Coulter.  My Ann Coulter history is actually quite sad.  The kind of sad you experience when you first learn that Santa Claus isn't real or the world isn't flat.  I have actually read several Ann Coulter books.  Not cover to cover but probably 30 chapters spread out over three of her books.  A friend of mine had a few of her earlier books laying about and I picked them up and thought, "Wow!  This woman is hilarious!  She's making the liberal argument through the use of extreme hyperbole".  When I found out she was serious, I actually cried a little.  This, of course, was before she was famous (or is "infamous" a more appropriate word?) and she had just a few cult followers.  Do you understand my Santa-Claus-sadness now?

Today, Ann Coulter has a large following of people that support statements like, "You will find liberals rooting for savages against civilization," and "Marriage is not civil right.  You're not black".  In the wise words of Sheldon Cooper, "What fresh hell?"

Please now imagine my glee when she posted this update to her blog.

First, my least important point: "Got Racism?"  The early 90's called and they want their dated reference back.  Who killed Alexander Hamilton?  Click here to find out!

Second, and on topic this time:  Coulter alleges that Chris Matthews, the liberal host of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, has declared the words "apartment" and "Chicago" as racist.  True to her asinine methods of making declarative statements and failing to cite them, she provides no link or even dates for when these statements were made.  But fear not!  I found the transcript of Hardball from August 30th 2012 where Chris Matthews is discussing the RNC with his guests.  The word "Chicago" is said three times during the entire transcript and here they are:

MATTHEWS: They [RNC Speakers] can keep saying Chicago, by the way. Have you
noticed? They keep saying Chicago. That sends that message, this guy [President Obama] is
helping the poor people in the bad neighborhoods, screwing us in the burbs.

HEILEMANN: There`s a lot of black people in Chicago.

Need some context?  They are talking about the RNC speeches.  They do not declare the word "Chicago" as racist.  Careful Ann, if you use your horde of flying monkeys as fact checkers you are bound to have errors.  The only mention of Chris Matthews ever saying the word "apartments" is racist is in Coulter's blog post and where others have copied it to their blogs.  Note:  If you can find the Chris Matthews+apartments+racist comment, I'll happily amend this post.

Sadly, we must now, in the spirit of fairness, talk about Chris Matthews saying, "They [RNC Speakers] keep saying Chicago".  Don't make me do this Chris, I love you and your crazy liberal rants but I also love when people use 100% of the truth.  The ONLY mention of Chicago during any of the speeches was by South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.  Here's the transcript.  Please note my use of caps-lock on the word "only".  That was it.  Only that one mention.  I reviewed all the speeches from every RNC speaker with the help of ctrl+f.  I'm declaring the one mention based on speeches only and with the assumption that the presenters were doing their jobs and presenting vs. speech-ing.

Is this a petty thing to latch onto?  I don't think so.  This is but one example of Ann Coulter's abuse of facts and truth.  Al Franken devoted an entire chapter to her in "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them".   With her books, appearances and blogs she makes unfounded declarative statements that lead people astray.  Coulter's followers base their vote on what she and her fellow political commentators say and probably never bother to locate the truth.  That is detrimental to our government and our election process and I, at least, find it very insulting.

em·pa·thy: The ability to understand and share the feelings of another

Immigration is a hot topic these days.  Just a cursory glance at any major news source provides a gripping national and political saga of drama, death, irony, and more absurdity than a Sarah Palin reality TV show.  But what about the people themselves?  

In the "drama" story, a woman was shackled while she gave birth.  I once had to try and figure out how to pee with handcuffs on and that a miserable experience that is in no way comparable to what this woman went through.  This human/person/woman was SHACKLED while she gave birth.  Did they think she was going to make a run for it?  Go hide in a Walmart (the most depressing symbol of America) and have her kid?  We did this.  Learned hate and evil and intolerance made somebody think it was acceptable to do this to another human being. 

So today, let's step back and think about the group of people that we call "illegal immigrants".   Most of us come from the loins of somebody that wasn't invited into this country and we seem to forget that.  Jose Antonio Vargas is an undocumented immigrant that was brought to the US when he was 12.  At 16, he found out that his green card was a forgery.  Today, he is a successful journalist and posted this piece on the use of the phrase "illegal immigrant".  

As an out and proud undocumented immigrant, Vargas' knowledge of the subject is first hand.  I can only speculate, but I imagine his life didn't become easier once he "outed" himself in 2011 and knowing the caliber of people in this "Melting Pot", I'd bet he received threats and hate mail.  After all he's been through and accomplished in his life, I'd say Vargas' is more than qualified to have his opinion heard and his arguments taken seriously. Really all he's saying is that we should use words that mean what we want to say rather than using words for dramatic effect.  

Vargas' wrote his column to everybody.  Simple language and well constructed arguments kept bringing me back to one question: Why have I never realized this before?  For all the coverage on debates and policies regarding "illegal immigrants", very few us take into consideration that we are talking about humans.  People.  Our neighbors.  They have committed no criminal offense by entering the US.  They don't come in and still our jobs and soak up our welfare and bleed our country dry.  Some run from evil political regimes and others come to be closer to family.  

So, why do we call them "illegal"?  Undocumented immigrants have committed civil offenses.  Ever said a curse word at work?  That might be a civil offense by a breach of contract with your employer.  Parking tickets?  Civil offenses.   So calm down and use your words.  There's no reason to dehumanize an entire group of people based on their undocumented status and use words to describe them that we normally reserve for criminals.

Also, Jose Antonio Vargas is from the Philippians.  If that sentence just blew your mind, click here.