I knew that I'd get crazy busy this semester, but I misunderestimated just how bad it would be. Now that I'm doing my internship, it seems I'm in motion from dawn to dusk. I'd become very spoiled, what with reading and watching movies only interrupted by the occasional test or paper.
Now I'm trying to get a reasonably good grade at the dreaded math and work my internship. My other two classes are easy - legal ethics is only an hour a week in class and I have an art class which is more of a treat than an obligation - so it's just the math and the stress of the new internship wearing me out. Not that the internship is stressful in a bad way, I've really enjoyed it so far and it's an amazing opportunity. If only I got paid for doing it!
But I've been busy and have become even more neglectful of this blog than I anticipated I would be. I'm going to try to post more. I think it will be good for me, discipline and all that. It's much easier to go read Sadly,No! than to actually do something myself.
I've kind of been in the doldrums since the election, with the excitement of victory having peaked and the cold reality of the horrendous wreck this country is right now settling in. As we knew they would, the Republicans are fighting Obama every step of the way on everything he's trying to do. I had a nice little burst of the old thrill earlier, though. I had my eye half on the T.V. and saw Air Force One on the tarmac, stairs extended. I automatically cringed, so used am I to seeing the Chimperor swaggering down those stepss, and it was a moment before I thought, no, not the Chimp, not now or ever again! Such a relief to see Obama exiting that plane! I should spend more time appreciating that.
There is another good piece of political news, and I'll try to make a post about it sometime this weekend. Iowa's horrible Congresscritter Steve King, he of the Border Fence to the Moon, is planning to take a run for governor. His evisceration will be a joy to watch, an absolute gift of opportunities to snark and point and laugh until the tears stream down my cheeks. Once he's outside his hick ass district he won't get more than one vote in a hundred. Joy, joy, joy! I await with great anticipation.
Kiss Mah Grits? FUCK. THE. POLICE!
1 hour ago
I'm not a freind to the nativists either. (As an urban bohunk/wop/mick/kraut/russkie/polack, how could I be?)
ReplyDeleteI do think that among their number are some basically reasonable people who are honestly just a bit frightened by the sheer numbers of latins entering the country now. I hope there is some way to talk to those people, and start to pull them away from the larger nativist crowd. Seems to me such an action would only help to further isolate the true nativists.
Yes, I think that most reasonable people realize, when faced with the fact that they've met a few of them brown folks here and there, and in fact these brown folks are all right and they even like a few of these brown folks, they start to question the race-baiting Steve Kings. It's hard to hate people once you know them, and have heard them talk about their kids or car problems or eaten in their restaurants. This is really the best cure for racism, I think.
ReplyDeleteI really do think the Steve Kings are a dying species, and that they'll soon be mostly extinct. They're not going to go gently into that good night, though.
I heard that the governor's office is waiting with delight to see if King will really offer himself up to be sacrificed on the ol' Republican altar. The attitude is kind of like the Far Side cartoon with the dog luring the cat into the dryer, and the dog is thinking "oh please oh please oh please."
Yeah. I've been going to this one pretty conservative blogger lately, a guy who isn't a bullshit artist, and knows something about military stuff. They guy sometimes talks about how immigration is just a ploy by those in government to vote themselves in a new public. Thinks Mexico is nothing but a failed state, and seems to support the idea of a wall. I wonder if I could convince the guy that it's a bad idea.
ReplyDeleteOh, and on the subject of a border fence, I'd like to mention one aspect of the big picture between the US and Mexico that many people tend to overlook. That is that, while Mexicans are indeed pouring into the USA and altering the situation here, Anglos are at the same time occupying parts of Mexico and altering the situation there.
ReplyDeleteI recently took a vacation in Puerto Vallarta, in the Mexican state of Jalisco. I was visiting my mother and her husband, who own a timeshare down there, and travel down from Wisconsin for about three months every winter. I also talked with my aunt and uncle, who just bought a house down there and are staying in Puerto Vallarta longer every year- now they're up to about 8 months.
There's also a commercial strip down there. I rode down it a couple of times in buses, and I swear if it wasn't for the palm trees & signs in Spanish you'd think you were in the USA. It's just a neverending line of US stores. Walmart, Carl's Junior, Hooters, Domino's Pizza, Sam's Club, Costco, Burger King etc. etc. Even Taco Bell, which was somehow embarrasing to see.
The advocates of walls and fences between the US and Mexico probably believe that their walls will stop immigration from Mexico. But what they maybe don't realize is that it's not one-way, at all. Overall, I'd think a wall would be inherently destabilizing, not stabilizing. Now if I only had a more proper, logical way to prove that thesis.
Anyhow, I sure don't blame you for not posting more. I'm not in school, and I don't think I could do it. So hope the internship is going well, hope you are well otherwise, and talk to you soon.
ReplyDeleteWow, I never gave a thought before to how many Americans are living in Mexico. Well, I guess I assumed that there are probably a lot of American business people who find it necessary to live near the plants that they've built in pursuit of the exploitation of NAFTA. I guess I never realized that American retirees were invading. Makes sense, I guess.
ReplyDeleteTaco Bell. FFS.
I'd also like to say that I'd be happy to be in Puerto Vallarta right now. The wind has been howling outside all day and I have teh flu or some nasty approximation of the flu. Palm trees and blue water would be really nice.
ReplyDeleteThere've been Yanqui retirees in Mexico for quite some time, the Social Security check going much farther there, & the weather another attraction.
ReplyDeleteI was last in Mexico in the late '80s, in the tourist spots of Tijuana & farther south along the coast, &, over a long wknd., did not use anything but U. S. money. Most of the stores had a calculator next to the cash register, so they could ring your purchase up in pesos, & then convert it to dollars.
They even had U. S. change: quarters, dimes, nickels, pennies, everything.
Nice kitties? (They look nice.) Hope they are comforting you as you curl up in bed, getting better.
Thanks, M. I'm feeling somewhat better today. Probably not due to teh kitties, who chose the middle of the night to run across me as I lay supine. (heh, she said supine!)
ReplyDeleteThey are pretty nice kittehs, though, all things considered. Teh Kitty Cheese has been commanded by the vet to lose weight, as she now is tipping the scales at 15 pounds. Yikes!
I can certainly see the attraction of moving to Mexico for the elderly set. I am a big fan of four seasons, so it doesn't appeal to me much, except in horrible winters like this one has been.
A lawyer where I work, who's getting up there in years, just drove all the way through Mexico, from top to bottom, with his wife. (He's a liberal, adventuresome guy.) Apparently they've done it before. One hears so much about the lawlessness, trouble with drug cartels, etc., that it kind of takes some people aback to hear that he would do that. He and his wife had a marvellous time, better than in the past, apparently, because they have learned to avoid uncooked food. ;-). I hope I'm half that spirited when I'm getting up there in years.
I was last in Mexico in the late '80s, in the tourist spots of Tijuana & farther south along the coast, &, over a long wknd., did not use anything but U. S. money.
ReplyDeleteM. Bouffant
Yeah, in my experience, in Puerto Vallarta at least, people almost seem happier to take US dollars than Pesos. In the admittedly touristy areas that I visited, I rarely met someone who didn't speak English, and if I did they usually just called for their English-speaking friend to come over and translate.
Candy, yeah it is pretty amazing, given the stuff you read about, that people drive right through all of Mexico. But I guess maybe if you avoid certain trouble spots, it's less of a big deal than one would think?
Having only frequented one area of Mexico, I don't feel quite qualified to say.