Chris Matthews, a talk-show host for MSNBC, has been in the news recently for making a gaffe about president Obama while commenting on his state of the union address. Taken out of context, the gaffe sounds pretty bad: ” . . . I forgot he was black tonight for an hour.”

Ouch.

It’s one of those moments where white people everywhere get really uncomfortable while we wait to see how the black community reacts. If they react negatively, we throw Chris under the bus. That’s what’s currently happening, but read his whole comment and see if that changes how you feel about his “d’oh!” moment: (more…)

I awoke this morning from an interesting dream. I was filling out some kind of long, cavernous form and I got tripped up by one question: “Do you have private health insurance or state health insurance?”

The question bugged me, and I remember specifically thinking about it for a long time. I rolled it over in my head. Which one did I have? Then I looked over the options for the state program and it asked if I had purchased a specific plan (if so, which one) or if I payed into the general fund. If I payed into the general fund, how much did I invest, etc. It occurred to me that once in high school I’d won a scholarship for high test scores, and that fund had won me some interest over the years . . . perhaps that counted?

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Well friends, it’s “that time of the month” again for me to post another blog. This month what’s really been pressing on me is the insanely politicized nature of Americans these days. I know I say that a lot, but it’s always getting worse! It’s like the election all over again, but it’s not anywhere near election season. We’re being teased into a crazed frenzy like a bunch of rabid dogs. Hell, there was the one guy who bit another guy’s finger off at a health care protest. If that isn’t rabid-dog enough for you, I don’t know what is.

It has gotten to the point where the pathos of the situation is running wild and we completely left logos and ethos in the dust. We can’t make just decisions without all three, so I say we all just calm the fuck down and eat some cake.

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I was raised by liberal democrats in a liberal area. When you’re raised under a certain ideal, you tend to accept it without question.

Over the past few months I’ve been having an interesting experience which has deepened my understanding of the world, human thought and especially American politics. Bush was elected president when I was too young to be thinking about right or left as metaphors for thought. In 2004, my first election was the presidential election and I endured a baptism of fire into the American political world. To loosely quote Hunter Thompson, I was part of a grand wave of good vibes which we all believed would simply prevail.

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Ok, I realize this is my third or fourth, uh, maybe fifth, political blog in a row, but can you really blame me? Seems like everywhere I turn is more about politics, I really can’t wait until this election is over. If you’re sick of politics, then you might as well skip this blog. I promise to have a non-political blog next time for my 5 readers.

Today I had an interesting conversation. I believe this guy could be a nice person if he wasn’t a partisan jerk. People who get completely wrapped up in being either democrat or republican are a little scary to me; it seems like they would need an uncanny ability to completely deny reality in order to be all on board for one party or the other. Both parties are so full of douchebaggery that, in my eyes, even the “we’re not as bad as those guys” routine doesn’t really work. Don’t get me wrong; there’s nothing bad about having a little pride in your beliefs and, consequently, your political party. But at the expense of being a reasonable person?

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