I'm so tired

This attitude of us versus us versus them is ridiculous. There is not a shred of common sense left in the political discourse in this country. If it isn't Glen Beck spewing crazy all over the airwaves, it is somebody biting a finger off at a town hall. I'm sick of it.

Was this the change we voted for? If so, I take it back. The change I voted for was supposed to bring this country together, not split it down the middle. Now before you think I am blaming the whole thing on Obama, do not jump to that conclusion. I blame the people who have hijacked the discourse from the fringe...on both sides. There are people calling for birth certificates, trials for Bush as a war criminal, the President is a socialist/facist/Nazi (by the way, you can't be all three), and booing people in wheelchairs at town halls.

I am worn out, and I just can't take listening to this tripe anymore. Now there's a controversy about the President broadcasting a speech to schools about studying hard and staying in school. Apparently there was a lesson plan to accompany it, and I believe that is too much, but a speech is controversy? I heard Reagan tell me that we should lower taxes (and that the Challenger blew up), then I heard Bush (the smart one who didn't fake serving in the military) tell me to stay off drugs. Am I a Republican or a rampaging capitalist? (The answer is no in case you hadn't guessed) Yet people in my area, O'Fallon, MO, are making the speech optional for students. The claim is that not everyone voted for this President and therefore he is not everyone's President is false. He is THE President of the United States of America. Get over it.

Compromise and tolerance of opposing viewpoints made the progress this country has made possible, it is time for some more of it...from both sides.

North Korea releasing their hostages

Kudos to Clinton, his image needed a win badly because he was looking ridiculous following the election. Yet, the morning after I was tuning into the news channels to revel in a foreign relations win for the US unfamiliar to me for eight-plus years. To my surprise, CNN was actually covering the story instead of some damn celebrity. Yet to my amazement, Fox News was up in arms about some secret "deal" with Kim Jong Il. Can't we just celebrate a win? Two United States citizens are home with their families that they may have never seen again if there had not been intervention, yet this is looked upon as an opportunity to criticize...wait for it...President Obama. Frankly, I am not that surprised, the man could cure cancer and Fox would ask "why not AIDS?", yet the comments of Dick Morris literally turned my stomach. I'll quote from MediaMatters.org:

Criticizing Bill Clinton's "awful," "ridiculous" trip to North Korea, Fox News political contributor Dick Morris said of the two freed journalists: "I feel badly for the two journalists, but what were they doing in North Korea in the first place?" Morris later responded to a question about "how were we supposed to get them home" by stating: "Maybe they don't come home. Maybe they go to North Korea and they live with the consequences of their decision to go there."

From the August 5 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:

Disgusting. These are Americans. These are women with families. You sir, make me ashamed to inhabit the same country as you. Super classy. Dick.

Looking for work

Gotta love getting canned. I'm somewhat amazed at how much the restaurant business has changed over the years. Although it has never been a secure industry to work in, I am somewhat amazed at the lack of concern for an employee's well-being. To not have any concern over the bottom line seems like a cold way to run a business. To offer insurance and then make it neither cost effective, nor make the hours necessary to maintain it attainable in a way to have any quality of life is an insult.

Unfortunately, it is one of the few jobs available to a college student where hours and money converge (at least to my knowledge, any opposing viewpoints would be more than welcome). Therefore, unless someone points me in a new direction for opportunity while I finish school, I am stuck in an untenable situation. To get another restaurant job seems like a Pyhrric victory, at best. Yet, it seems to be my only option once again.