Tag: politics

When I Swear that I don’t Have a Gun

~ NormalNobody ~ 2 Comments

Did you ever wish you had a gun? I know some of you out there do, and that’s fine. I know how to shoot guns from summer camp. Rifles mostly. We would go hunting for targets printed on trees. If hunting meant you lying on a mat in a fanned area of the facility in the shade.

Or, you could get those crooked casino game guns. You know, that little machine gun tied into a fixed position and you can shoot the star all you want, but one tiny piece is left and you lose.

I’m in a state where gun control is fairly rigid. Not that I think I would own one by choice. I was watching a show out of Texas, some reality bull TV, and the girl had a pink gun. It was the first time I ever wanted a gun. Not for the gun itself, but it was pink. Yes, I went through a pink phase, where everything just had to be pink. Even if I didn’t know how to use the pink thing I had. Like the gun the girl bought.

Lately, due to my mental health issues the question has come up a lot. “Do I own a gun?” Part of me thinks to lie, say yes, just to see what would happen. Part of me wants to start reciting Nirvana’s “Come as you Are.” Either seems a bit nutty so I just say no. I think even if I did own a gun, the, “no” would pop out of my mouth anyway. For fear of some NSA no fly list category gets checked in their papers. Or, maybe say it to just to break out in song during the question and answer period. A mix to the mundane stroll of questions that would probably get me committed.

I wonder if they are asking if I would kill myself, or go all mass murder with it? I almost want to say yes just to see what would happen. I mean, sure, next thing you know the FBI is holding my family, dogs, and cats hostage because some girl in a crisis tells you they had a gun. Can’t be too safe these days. Messing with the FBI is not something on my to do list, mostly because they can mess with me much worse, with greater consequences. But is that what I really expect to happen because I claim to own a gun. And wouldn’t they be kind of silly to listen to a girl who obviously has mental health issues talk about owning a gun?

The truth is, I wouldn’t begin to even know what to do with a gun. My gun knowledge stems from forced summer camp learning, which also required basket-weaving and woodworking (and god knows I didn’t retain much of that information either), followed by a bunch of Bruce Willis and Steven Seagal action flicks, and ends with Grand Theft Auto (cheat codes included). Then sprinkle in a tiny bit of Elmer Fudd, and there-in lies my knowledge of guns.

So why ask me this question? If I say yes, I mean, let’s say, sure, I own a gun. Now what? Oh, you expect me to use the thing? Die Hard didn’t give me training in any of the guns I’d be comfortable owning (you know, not the pink girly ones), and I doubt they sell guns some rabbit can tie in a bow. The ones I see on Instagram seem more fashion then function, which is actually the kind I want. The pink one. Shooting it would make it dirty, no? Or does it make me dangerous?

I suppose with training, sure, I could be as good as anyone else with my pink swaravski crystal gun of Kardashian fame. But let’s face it, this question isn’t going to tell you anything about anyone. It’s not illegal to own a gun, and while I agree that certain guns should be kept out of people’s hands, how is asking me this question tell you whether or not I am going to shoot up a place? Can’t search me for a gun I don’t admit to having, and even if I did, you don’t know what gun I have. More or less if I even have the faintest idea of how to use it.

This isn’t meant to be a pro-gun, or anti-gun. It’s kind of meant to be funny. Like singing, “Come as you Are,” funny when being asked these questions. Which I don’t recommend.

Him

~ NormalNobody ~ 1 Comment

So, I decided to be bold.  To go where I want this blog to go.  Politics and Religion are scary subjects to me.  I don’t like to isolate people, and I certainly don’t want to preach.  But, that’s what I like to write, or what seems to be writing itself.  So, here we go:

Politics.  Honestly, Democrat or Republican, I don’t care about the party.  It’s him.  I don’t like him.  Even writing this scares me.  Somehow I feel that this will come to bite me later on.  I don’t know what he’s going to do with our country, I don’t know where we are going.  But I feel it’s bad.

You know, he didn’t even tell us what he was doing? The State of the Union (or, as the tickets reportedly said, “State of the Uniom,” but I don’t know how true that is), but the speech didn’t say… anything.

Sure, I love our soldiers, and whatever he said about God and our country was beautiful.  I love how he highlighted our heroes.  Well, he did that whenever the clapping stopped.  It was actually hard to follow.  Too much clapping.  But it’s not my main concern.  It’s what he didn’t say.

He didn’t say anything about what he was doing this year.  And, really, I love our soldiers and God and this country.  I love our heroes and the work they do, and I daydream about what heroic things I would do if faced in their situation (even though I’d probably not do anything heroic if such things would happen; just cower in a corner crying).  I admire them.

But that’s not what a State of the Union is.  And that, honestly, scared me into silence.  (see how heroic I am?).  Distraction is a wonderful tool.  How can you not like what he said? It’s beautifully patriotic.  It’s hard to speak of it’s inappropriateness.  But it wasn’t the appropriate time.  And he knew that.  He distracted us.  He either has no plan, and is running our country on whatever whim he has at the moment.  Or he has a plan he doesn’t want us to know.  Though, I fear it’s probably a mix of both, which is scary enough when you consider this isn’t some hotel chain, but a chain of States.  This is a country we are talking about.  My country.

Part of me feels like, if he continues, I would be jailed for saying any of this.  Maybe it’s an irrational fear, a slippery slope fallacy.  Maybe I’m too influenced by the media and my father’s obsession with everything WW2 related.  Maybe he won’t do anything, or maybe we have opened the door for worse.  It’s not so much him, but what he’s setting us up for.  For what’s next to come.  Germany had a bad, incompetent leader who was destroying an already destroyed country.  He opened the door for some one to come in who was better.  Russia did the same.  From monarchy to Lenin’s revolt, to a “better” Stalin.

It takes people who are fed up and a good guy in sheep’s clothing.  But, I don’t think Trump will go down easily.  And I do feel like the system is set up to re-balance itself.  Whatever is coming will certainly be Trump’s branding.  But I do worry it’s going to be Trump himself.  Or, if he is actually impeached…. well… impeachment is just charges, remember Nixon resigned before being impeached, and Clinton, our only successfully impeached president, continued until his presidency officially ended.  Impeachment is just an investigation, it is not a throw-away.  And we need to actually charge him with something.  It’s also a violation of the law to investigate some one just to charge them with anything.  It would be like an officer following you around, looking at your records, and showing up with a search warrant to look at everything because he want’s to accuse you of something, as soon as he can find out what that is.  They can’t do that, even to our president.  It does violate his rights as a citizen.

But let’s say we do.  We find something.  Impeachment isn’t eviction.  I highly doubt if charges are filed against him and an official investigation starts, it means he will step down.  He’s free to continue to run the country into the ground.  The best case scenario is actually the worse case scenario.  Pence takes over.  I don’t know if he’d be a really good boy, and leave well enough alone to quietly be replaced in the next election, or he’s worse.  Which is how these things tend to go.  Replacing one incompetent reality TV star leader who has no idea what he’s doing (well, minus the reality TV fame) with something worse.  Like Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Mao, Castro.  All revolutionary replacements to what people thought was the worst.

But it could just be irrational.  He could just finish his four (long) years, and go quietly (if he keeps to his word about not running again, and as you know his word means sh**.)

It’s not a party issue.  It’s him.  I can’t believe it happened, but at the same time I can.  I watch the news call a home-made ammeter porn actress “American Royalty.”   I don’t even watch the show, or follow celebrity news, but everything she touches, her entire family, is followed almost more than actual royalty.  I can’t not watch, she’s everywhere.  The whole family.  I feel like I know more about them and what they are doing then I do about my own family comings and goings.

Who knows, maybe one of them will follow in Trump’s footsteps.

See what we opened the door too? Worse.  You, unqualified, non-political, everyday man or woman, you too can become president.  Why not?

It’s why I don’t want Oprah.  We don’t need another reality TV star actress to run our country.  Reagan was a lucky fluke.  But he was also really involved in politics.  Not business or show business politics, real running the country politics.  With a politically motivated wife who wanted both she and her husband to succeed.  We can’t just hope some one “outside” will come in with better ideas.  No more actors, hotel business owners, reality TV star hosts for me.  For us.

I’m scared of him.  I’m poor, I’m hurt.  I worry about the people I represent, or used to represent (working with the developmentally disabled).  I worry that I can’t work for a little while and what that means for me.  I worry about what that means for clients like the ones I worked with.  I’m worried that by typing this he will mark me as some kind of terrorist.  He doesn’t take criticism very well, and he fired his own family.  His wife can’t stand him and he says creepy things about his daughters.  The man is paranoid and a bit insane.  I personally think he’s a psychopath.  He could take this country for everything we got, break us for his wallet, and flee.  And not care about the damage one bit.

I don’t want a president who doesn’t care.  Whose interests appear to be expanding a business empire on our dime.  He can walk away after and not give a damn about what happens to us.  Not feel bad.  Not feel anything.  He’s practically begging a crazy man to throw a nuke at us just so he can play general in a war.  He wants our country to be bombed.  It’s a game of dare only thousands of innocent people will be killed, and many more sick.  Of OUR people.  The people he’s been hired to care for and protect.  And he’s daring a man crazier then him to bomb us! He’s openly saying we are commodities.

I’m not expendable so a man who has never served any military position can play war with nuclear bombs.  Yeah, North Korea is bad.  But there are things we can do besides taunting him to throw a missile so we have a reason to invade.  How about just leaving him alone? If Trump wanted a war he can convince the UN to allow us to go in for crimes against humanity.  “Peace mission” or whatever you want to call it, you know, that’s a thing.  (Yeah, I know China is really the issue with that).  But he’d rather nuke his own people.  He WANTS the man to throw the nuke to bypass China.

And I wonder if that somehow makes him worse then the man he’s taunting.

The American Dream

~ NormalNobody ~ Leave a comment

I was recently hanging around with some friends of mine, and we got on the topic of families. We were talking about our status in life, how we got where we are. Him, being a first generation of Chinese Immigrants, me being second generation, totally Americanized. We talked about politics, jobs, and somehow, as I stated, our families.

Inadvertently, I brought up my cousin. I say that because as he was talking about how his family became who they were in this country, the story reminded me so much of him. Not that my cousin immigrated here, but, just how in this country one can start with humble beginnings and become something great. As I reflected on the conversation I had with my friend, I remembered how much I admired my cousin, even growing up.

My cousin does not know I’m writing this, so obviously out of respect for his private life, I will leave some stuff out. I am also going to give him the random name of “Jim,” again, for his private life and his unknowingly becoming a subject of a blog. Also, typing “my cousin” over and over again not only will annoy me, but I am sure you, the reader, as well. Jim is significantly older than me, so I did have the opportunity to see him as an inspirational adult figure, and have much respect for how he got where he is. Even the friend I mentioned above, had great respect for a man who could come from so little, and gain so much.

I don’t know much about Jim as a very young child, as, I wasn’t born. I can’t comment too much on his socioeconomic status growing up either. He went to public school in New York City, lived somewhere in the 70s in Manhattan during the 1980s. I wouldn’t say he was poor, but from my understanding from my mother, money was tight. Then again, when isn’t it?

I wish I could say I remember Jim when he was a teen, but, for the most part, it seems all my memories are of him as an adult. Perhaps it was because I was so young, and me being so small that even a young, teenage Jim would tower above me much like the rest of the tree like people looking down.

But, I remember always loving Jim. Something in the way he perused what he wanted to do, an independent spirit, like my grandfather. Every year I saw him he was involved in a new interest or hobby, and good at it too. One year he charmed me with magic tricks, speaking of becoming a magician. The next year he wasn’t a magician anymore, but found a new passion. He kept going and going and following wherever his dreams took him. Eventually that spirit took him to computers, networking, coding, website design, and a bunch of technical words and terms that I don’t understand.

I get it, I get it. This is titled “The American Dream” and I’m talking about my cousin. I guess the point is, my cousin reminds me of what I actually love so much about this country. Here, a man from a modest beginning, dropping out of HS to follow where his heart leads him, and becoming one of the most successful people I know.

Oh, wait. I didn’t mention that? The man who followed his dreams and heart became so successful that he has a mansion in an exclusive neighborhood in New York state and married a beautiful woman who, for all intensive purposes, can trace her heritage to Romanian Royalty?

THAT, my friends, is America. That is what I told my friend, whose parents saw that when they came here. When people ask me what the “American dream” is, I bring up my cousin. Because, none of that is exaggerated. I love my cousin, and I love my country. It is why my grandparents immigrated here, and it is the dream. And if anyone doesn’t know what it means to live in America, just tell them this is the only country where you can grow up in a blue collar neighborhood, drop out of high school, follow your dreams, find your passion, become wealthy, and marry royalty.

Everyone’s American dream is different, everyone’s story is written differently. There is a lot going on in the political infrastructure of America right now that makes me unsure of where my country is going. It may have always been this way. I just want to say right now, no matter where you stand, left or right, pro or con, black or white, religion or not…

This is a great country. We have great opportunity. Let’s not forget what we are all about.

Odd Answers to Government Surveys

~ NormalNobody ~ 2 Comments

I kind of like the company I work for.  It’s perfect for a person doing what I need to do.  Boring, tedious, but they make it fun.  I do government surveys: health, political, or sometimes for a college or other non-profit.

So, while these survey’s are on telephones (and most people hang up on me), I’m not telemarketing.  I’m doing work for legit. causes.   Things that will possibly make this place better.  SO FILL IT OUT PEOPLE, THIS IS IMPORTANT!!! (You’d be surprised at how many people curse me out).

I love doing political surveys (we don’t call within our state, because we may bias the survey, so we have no stake in the issue).  They give me a good, overall, mindset of people.  Plus, of all the survey’s we do, those are the ones that allow us to have a say in their government.

And I get hung up more on by those, then anybody.  And then I hear complaints, “Well, if anyone ever asked me, I would tell them to do this….”  Well, we are calling, and you are hanging up on us.

Anyway, the high folks give the funniest answers.  Usually, they give the answer to the question you asked 4 questions ago, not to the question you are on now.  The drunks just talk.  Talk and talk.  And you have to guide them back to the survey, as much as you want to hear all about how much the question reminds them of some story as to why they think that way.

But hey, they are answering the questions, (and thus, influencing politics) and I am really patient.

Then…. the weirdos….

I divide this into three kinds.

1- The perverted:

Somehow they confuse a government survey with a sex line or dating service.

2- The “Oh my god I can’t believe s/he just said that” guy/girl:

These people have answers that are so out there, (for those of you that get this reference: Think “Deliverance”), they are either messing with you, or you really wonder if Deliverance still exists.

3- HUH?

More on these in a minute.

So, the perverted.  That needs no examples.  You can imagine them on your own.

So, the guy I chose to represent the (2) “Did s/he just say that????” category comes to us from a state I won’t reveal, on a subject and reason I will not share with you.

On a topic about education, I person told told me s/he thought one of the problems wrong with schools was, “the fact we don’t beat the kids enough.” Because, sure, nothing fixes a problem by just beating everybody into making it better.  😕

Amazingly, I’m able to keep a calm tone.  I record their answers as they say them.  Because, s/he’s the only one that hasn’t hung up on me in two hours, and s/he’s taking the survey.  It’s his/her right, and your’s.  And… yet YOU have probably just yelled at me and hung up.

Anyway, I record their answers, as they give them, whether I think they are wrong or just stupid, I put it down w/o influence.  Because I think it is their opinion, and they have a right to express it without judgement when asked.  Technically, just because I may not agree, doesn’t make it less valid.  Facts and opinions are two different ballgames.

Then there is (3).  The “Mother Ship has landed people”.  The one’s I promised you.

I’m going to give you two examples in this.  Because this one person gets the cake for a refusal to take the survey.    I think s/he was messing with me, or possibly “on” something, (sigh) at least I’d hope it’s one of those two.

When asked if s/he would like to participate, the answer was, “No, I’m not home right now.  I’m a figment of your imagination.” and hung up.

Now, I’m really patient.  Those are normal.  People find interesting ways not to participate.  And even the perverts and the foot-in-mouth diseased Americans, with patience, and anonymity, you learn to bounce it off you and get through the survey.  Even if it takes a little longer.  Because… they…. are….. taking…. it…..

Did I mention that these survey’s are important, and yet you are hanging up on us?? And THESE people are answering!!!

So, okay.  This example is from a health survey.  I think I can say that without trouble.  And just to stop having to type “his/her” and “s/he”, we are going to assume this is a male.  That does not mean he was, and it doesn’t mean he wasn’t.

That was the first time my indifference waivered.  This guy was one of those people you knew were completely serious, and the more you spoke to him, the more you realized that even Mother Ship rejected him.  The more I tried to keep him on the survey, the more “creative liberty” he took in his interpretation and ideas.  He never crossed the line, and it wasn’t my patience faltering.   I just couldn’t do anything with him.  I tried.  But, I had to let him go.  When asked an insurance question he told me (paraphrasing) his insurance is of the godly kind, where none is needed.  “Because God is my insurance,”  Yeah, okay, time for you go to go now.  I politely stepped out, as his answers were so obscure at this point I couldn’t.  But, later on, when I got home, I thought… well…. he has a point.

NO NO NO… STAY with me here.

There is a Buddist saying that says “There is a fine line between pure enlightenment and mental retardation.”  (C/P one of the 200 names from Google search here)  So, the statement, “God is my insurance.”  Genius or insane? I think it is a valid point, comes from a very obscure reasoning, but, the point is valid.

Okay, throw god out of your head for this.  WHATEVER “this” is, (God, Jesus, nature, energy, Allah, Buddha, health, unity, science, laws, circle of life, whatever you Scientology people do (some alien guy, right?) and whatever other form/name/power/label you want to put here that I didn’t mention) it is a form of insurance.

Okay, too genius to answer on a basic level, and too….. whatever he was dealing with that made him, “off”…… to realize at some point “god” and “money” don’t collide when it comes to the science you have available to save your life.

But maybe ignorance IS bliss.  Maybe not knowing any better, and the knowledge of nothing but peace from the idea of, essentially, something makes us alive, and something makes us dead.  Money can reverse the suffering, for a time.

Of course, it will lead to unnecessary problems of diseases, and needless, needless suffering that doesn’t NEED to happen.  (We used to rely on only God.  That was when the Black Plague was around).  And, money force doctors to put the bottom line over human life.  Because the oath is noble.  The mortgage, kids, student loans, and kid’s college fund doesn’t give a s*** about your oath, and, in this economy, you HAVE a job.

I wanted to reply to him, “But God gave you the way to pay, to offer people the gifts of healing.”

But I had to be indifferent on the survey.  I had to let him go.  He was suffering needlessly, and maybe one day will read this before it’s too late.

Odd answers to a survey.  And these are the people who take it.  There are more wierdo’s then actual answers.  SO STOP CURSING ME OUT AND TAKE THE STUPID SURVEY!!