Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Freaky Phone Calls

Alright, now I'm just a tad bit worried.

I got a phone call from someone who identified herself as a survey person wanting to ask me questions about my community (which I've lived in for 3 months).  I advised her I was a poor subject for her survey, but she insisted I'd do just fine.

The questions were pretty innocuous at first, what did I think of the city, did they do enough for the citizens, blah blah blah, and I couldn't really even honestly answer; I just don't know yet.

But then the questions took a turn that was really scary; all about the petro-chemical plants that dot the highway where I live.  Did I know what to do in case of a toxic release?  Where would I get my information during an environmental emergency?  Who should notify me that deadly toxic fumes are invading my neighborhood, the city or the chemical plant?  Do the chemical plants do enough to protect citizens?  It just went on and on and I'm now totally freaked out about what safeguards these companies do take, and what Louisiana does to protect its citizens as opposed to what Louisiana gives companies to build their potentially deadly plants here.  To err on the side of caution, I said the chemical plants aren't doing enough and need to do more and that the environment was my number one concern, not jobs or salaries.

So, at the very least, I may have a different shade of skin or eyes in the next decade.  That wouldn't be so bad in my opinion.  However, I may drop dead when I walk out the front door from some toxic release at a chemical plant accident; and the city nor the plant could decide who was going to let me know not to go outside; that I'd be safe in my house for 45 minutes or so before death came creeping in.

Life is challenging here in Louisiana.  It's like you're given an option -- be healthy or get a pay check; no compromise.  Very unsettling.  Very Jindal.  Very bad.


Monday, November 25, 2013

Random Annoyances

Lately, I love the music but cannot stand the musicians.

Why do all Hollywood actresses look as if their heads are too big for their bodies?  Seriously, the west coast is really starting to look like Mars Attacks.

No painting is worth 143 million dollars.  I say so.

The Pope is so utterly passé.

Fashion is best left to the well proportioned young.  The rest of us should try for tasteful, well-tailored and age appropriate.  Unless you live in New Orleans. 

What's with all the television commercials for comfortable, lubricated catheters.  Is there some pee problem happening in this country that I'm not aware of .  What is it?  Enlighten me.

The mantra that finally worked for me in giving up cigarettes is Puff the Magic Dragon.  I don't really understand why I'm afraid I'm going to become an opium addict now, but I am.

Is it actually possible that someone can write a freaking 2000 word essay on nail polish?  And get it published?

Why do lawyers talk about representing car accident victims on television constantly.  Are they causing all these car accidents?  Someone needs to look into this.

I live in a place where they talk about tides all the time.  High tide, low tide, time of tide, tide ebbing, tide neaping.  It's fascinating.  What the hell does it mean?

Is it ever a good idea to tell the IRS to go f*ck themselves?  Apparently, not.

Does anyone else lie at the post office when asked if there's anything liquid in the box?  I feel bad about myself but how else am I going to send perfume to someone?

I don't want to go to my book club on Saturday because I recommended the book and it turned out to be an awful book with awful characters and an awful ending.  It did get good reviews in The New York Times, but obviously the reviewer was a more miserable bastard than the people in the book.  Hard to imagine.  Guess I'll suck it up and apologize.
































Friday, November 15, 2013

Feeling Too Nice

I've neglected this blog as of late.  The weather in Louisiana is just too nice; I spend time outdoors rather than in front of my computer.  When it does cool off, I'm in the kitchen making some of my cold weather specialties.  And frankly, the political news, nationally, in Wisconsin and in Louisiana has left me feeling unsettled.  I'd rather feel nice, so I've been avoiding it.

Health care is in the news, especially the problems with the Affordable Care Act.  I'm saddened that something designed to help all Americans is off to such a rocky start; and sadder that republicans and red states are capitalizing on implementation issues as proof positive this law is a bad thing.  I live in a red state now, and the slant and bias in the news is very annoying to me; especially the odd-headed woman on channel 33 who smirks when talking about the problems with health care for everyone.  She could have her flat top, bulgy sided head fixed, which could also improve her conservative rhetorical ideas.  Misshapen skulls obviously lead to misshapen brains.  At any rate, unbiased reporting in Baton Rouge is not exactly a journalistic ethic anyone here follows. 

Scott Walker wrote a book?  Has Scott Walker ever read a book?  I think he might have read "My Life as a Geisha".  That fits perfectly.  Walker has turned down federal funding for implementation of the Affordable Health care Act in Wisconsin, but is now talking about moving Wisconsin citizens off Medicare and onto plans under the health care act.  Be sure, the advantage in doing so would cause harm to Medicare recipients and help Scott Walker's unbalanced budget and unbalanced nature.  I would love to see Scott Walker get his bony a$$ kicked out of Madison in the upcoming election.  Note to self:  contribute to Mary Burke's campaign.

I can't decide if Bobby Jindal is a light-skinned black, addicted to tanning booths or spending the kick back $750,000 from nursing homes doing some island hopping.  One theory is that Hitler was Jewish, which is an insult to Jewish people everywhere; but maybe Bobby Jindal is a black man, which is, also, an insult to black men everywhere.  I apologize. 

I see the Koch brothers are flooding the market place with their "Americans for Prosperity" ads attacking Obamacare.  A pox upon them!  Really - or how about a flesh eating disease to give them a first hand lesson in parasites.  Americans for Prosperity my a$$.  These are rich people united to protect other rich people, and nothing more.  No prosperity for the average Joe.  And no health care either. 

I heard people lined up to get Sarah Palin's book at a bookstore somewhere in Wisconsin; probably the Fox Valley, but I forget.  If that isn't the ultimate show of dumb, f*cking Americans anywhere in the world, then I'm a princess of Bahrain.  Sarah Palin's book writing talent is second only to Scott Walkers.  Neither of them has a brain cell firing in their vacuous heads, so what they put down on paper is as mindless as the people who buy this trash. 

Anyhow - 75 degrees today in Baton Rouge.  Too nice to be inside and too annoying to read anymore or watch anymore biased news "reporting". 

F*ck America's Politics.  It's my mantra.








Monday, November 4, 2013

Why Bobby Jindal Needs the Boot

Louisiana has a natural defense against flooding; a very good thing in a land where hurricanes are regular visitors.  The bayous along the coast have been protecting New Orleans and the rest of the coastal communities for centuries.  Until now. 

Oil companies have sucked Bobby Jindal's brain cells right out of his head.  He allowed them to come in, divert waterways, destroy natural resources and basically screw up the entire coastline.  Bobby Jindal loves oil company money; much more than he loves Louisiana. 

Is it safe to say that republican and environmental moron are interchangeable terms?  I believe it is.  Louisiana is doing relatively well in terms of jobs and economic status for residents.  On the highway that leads me to New Orleans, there are so many oil refineries, petro-chemical producers and all the businesses supplying those corporations that the average pay at one of these places is about $70,000 annually for a skilled worker.  That's a lot of money for an hourly wage earner.  And I'm glad people are employed, paid well, and doing better than average.

I'm not glad, however, that the cost of business is the destruction of Louisiana's coastline.

Bobby Jindal must go.  He loves cash more than he loves the state.  No big surprise.  Republicans are nothing if not short-sighted. 

On the bright side, based on what's happening in the Virginia elections this year, it is becoming vividly apparent that the republican party has shot themselves in the head with their radical extremist politics. 

Let's get rid of the republicans and take back the environment.  Vote for anyone except Bobby Jindal.  Why can't I ever live in a state with a good governor? 

Sunday, November 3, 2013

America's Silent Depression

Back in the 1930's, things were pretty dismal in the United States.  There were bread lines and soup kitchens.  People starved to death.  Families were destroyed.  People lost their homes and farms and became migrant workers, exploited and abused. 

Supposedly, we put in safety networks to insure that this would never again happen in the land of opportunity.

But, those safety networks are being dissolved, one by one, by people who don't believe we need this sort of thing in the land of opportunity.

By republicans.  By the tea party.  By the 1% whose wealth is so vast, contributing to a national health care network would not make a bit of difference to their bottom line.

There is a silent depression going on in this country right now.  People are starving.  People are unable to get quality health care.  People are losing their homes.  The United States ranks 34th in health care delivery in the world; a very sad commentary on our nation's greed, for-profit health care and opportunistic parasites determined to suck the blood out of any form of socialized medicine.

Everyone knows I'm not a fan of today's America.  Wave your flags all you want.  The proof is in the doing.  America is an imperialistic son-of-a-bitch and continues to destroy itself.  I'm afraid that the old red, white and blue will be what's left of America, a bloody, bruised and nearly dead shadow of what it could have been.