More Official [Fake-Out] Mail

I should know better by now.

Whenever I receive mail from the Republican National Committee, I always kind of expect it to be important, but it never is.  They are champions at sending fake-out mail: they like to send surveys that "MUST" be returned (with a few questions to help me feel like I'm sharing my opinions--that they think they already know--and then questions about how much of a donation I'm making, $25 minimum for processing my survey).  Today, I got a fake index card with information about me, and a letter urging me to PLEASE confirm my information (because my party affiliation is "unconfirmed" until I send back the fake index card that lists me as Republican).  And when I send it back--time is of the essence--I need to include my maximum contribution so they know that I am with them. Like they are really hoping to receive thousands and thousands of index cards. 

It reminds me of the super sketchy call center I worked at for a few months.  I was calling people to verify that they were interested in online college classes (which was sketchy enough), but some of the other people in the same building had a different type of calls.  They would set up "interviews" where they would ask people questions...but the whole goal was to get the people to feel like it was an exclusive opportunity.  They didn't even write down anyone's responses, because everyone was approved--as long as they were ready to pay for their "opportunity" to participate. 

I'm sure the Republican National Committee gets a lot of replies, but I think fake-out mail is so tacky.  (Also, it's kind of insulting, because I know they're trying to trick me into giving them money, which implies that not only do they think I am stupid but they are trying to take advantage.)

Oops, I just shredded my index card.  Now what?

Presidents' Day

If you want to enjoy your Presidents' Day cookie cutters, you've got to remember them at precisely the right time. Remembering that you can make cookies shaped like presidents does no good at all if you remember for Halloween or Valentine's Day, or on some random summer day. No, you've got to remember you have Presidents' Day cookie cutters on Presidents' Day, or a couple days before, and if you don't, well, you're out of luck.


BUT I REMEMBERED!

So I suggested to J that we make some Presidents' Day sugar cookies, in celebration of presidents. I made the cookie dough and cut cookies, and then for our Presidents' Day FHE, we decorated presidents* and delivered plates of cookies to some of our neighbors.



It was a lot of fun.



*I asked J if all of the Washingtons had faces, because I was going to use the skin-colored frosting to make beard-colored frosting. He assured me that all of the faces were done. So I made beard-colored frosting. And then he realized one wasn't done after all. Ohhh, no. So he suggested I make one Obama-Washington (with beard-colored frosting). No way! So I scraped the edges of the white (wig-colored) frosting, and made just enough face-colored frosting for the poor guy. We** only celebrate presidents that act like presidents.
** I

DOES YOUR LANDLORD HAVE A BILL OF SALE FROM GOD?

My coworker Devin came back from pulling books with a stack of yellow papers. He was pretty excited about them. Apparently someone went throughout the library and put yellow papers on the shelves. He said there was like, a trail of them. He went from one to the next, collecting them. He thought I would appreciate them, which I did.

I think you will too.

This is fantastic!

Here are some of my favorite parts:
- Your landlord cannot charge you rent because they don't own your property--God does.
- We are slaves to banks, paying interest on their money that they printed.
- Everything we do is based on fear.
- Create your own reality! It's now or never, wake up!

Also, I love-loved the ALLCAPS, so that everyone knows that this is REALLY IMPORTANT, and TRUE (because obviously, anything printed is true.) (Just like everything on the Internet is true.)

THE END IS NEAR

YOUR 'FREEDOM' WILL SOON BE A DISTANT MEMORY. YOU ARE BEING DELUDED INTO A NIGHTMARISH FUTURE BY AN ELITE CLUB OF WEALTHY FASCIST ELITES. 9/11 IS AN OBVIOUS CONSPIRACY. THE LIES PERPETRATED THROUGH THAT TRAGEDY BY THE DECEITFUL CABAL POSING AS LEGITIMATE WORLD GOVERNMENTS HAS DUPED YOU. YOU HAVE BEEN CONFUSED WITH DUPLICITIOUS RELIGIONS, A BOGUS ECONOMY, ENDLESS WARS, AND A MANIPULATIVE MEDIA TO ACCEPT THEIR VERSION OF REALITY IN ORDER TO KEEP YOU DISTRACTED, ASLEEP AND UNAWARE. WHEN YOU ARE AFRAID, YOU ARE EASIER TO MANIPULATE, AND EVERY DIVISIVE ELEMENT OF SOCIETY IS AN ARTIFICIAL CONSTRUCT SPECIFICALLY ORCHESTRATED TO SOFTEN YOU UP FOR THEIR IMMINENT SEIZURE OF POWER. ANALYZE YOUR ACTIONS AND DESIRES, AND YOU WILL REALIZE THAT EVERYTHING YOU DO IS BASED ON FEAR AND OR THE NEED TO ACQUIRE WEALTH IN ORDER TO SUSTAIN THE ILLUSION THAT YOU ARE FREE. YOU ARE NOTHING MORE THAN A SLAVE IN WAITING. WHAT IS THE DEFINITION OF A SLAVE? HE WHO IS CONTROLLED THROUGH FEAR. YOU ARE AFRAID OF BEING POOR. YOU ARE AFRAID OF NOT BEING ACCEPTED. YOU ARE AFRAID OF THINGS AND PEOPLE THAT ARE DIFFERENT FROM YOU. YOU ARE AFRAID OF THE RENT. WHO OWNS THE LAND YOU LIVE ON? DOES YOUR LANDLORD HAVE A BILL OF SALE FROM GOD? NO ONE 'OWNS' ANYTHING. THE BANKS HAVE TRICKED YOU INTO BELIEVING THAT YOU OWE THEM SOMETHING, WHEN ALL THEY'VE DONE IS SCARE YOU INTO PAYING THEM INTEREST ON MONEY THEY PRINTED IN THE FIRST PLACE. WHO ARE YOU EARNING YOUR 'LIVING' FROM? WEALTHY ELITES WHO HAVE DECEIVED YOU INTO A STATE OF PERPETUAL WEAKNESS SPAWNED BY FEAR. NO ONE IS ENTITLED TO DEFINE YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD. NO ONE CAN CHARGE YOU FOR RENT ON THE LAND THAT NO ONE ACTUALLY OWNS. NO ONE CAN DEFINE YOUR REALITY FOR YOU UNLESS YOU LET THEM; THE ONLY REASON YOU LET THEM IS BECAUSE YOU ARE AFRAID. THIS IS THEIR POWER, BUT IT IS AN ILLUSION OF POWER IF YOU THINK FOR YOURSELFAND CREATE YOUR OWN REALITY. IT'S NOW OR NEVER, WAKE UP!

BEST. MAGAZINE. EVER.

At work, I discovered the best magazine ever. Okay, maybe not the best, but it's up there. It's called "The American Home" and it is fantastic. Someone requested something from volume XXVIII, which is June to November, 1942. I can't put it down.

I have six excellent things to share from within these issues. They are:
1. Four great IDEAs!
2. A Kleenex advert.
3. Two Windex adverts.
4. An Air Warden Shindig.
5. An article about how children can help us win the war.
6. A VICTORY DIET!

These are really amazing. If you want to see pictures of the covers from these magazines, they are posted here. Totally worth it. According to Wikipedia, it was published from 1928 to 1977. I don't know. I don't know if it was quite this amazing after the war, but during the war, like every page is about ON GUARD...the home front. Cooperating for VICTORY. I love Victory. So did they. They had Victory vacations, Victory parties, Victory dinners where everyone dressed up as vegetables from their Victory gardens. Victory hobbies, Victory everything!


Just a thought--maybe this is why we keep having problems with our wars now. Maybe if we would just buy some war bonds and take care to feed our future citizens more vegetables, and use more Bon Ami cleaner and take care of our homes since they are Second Fronts, maybe we would win our wars in the middle east. I'm just saying. Nobody invited me to an Air Warden Shindig during the war in Iraq.

Anyway, here is the first part, which is actually four parts:

IDEA! IF "Drink your orange juice, Junior!" raises a storm of stubborn objections, you can settle your tempest, in a teapot! Invite your young problem child to have "tea" with you. Lay the table just as you do for grown-up parties, with regular cups and a large teapot. No kid stuff! Make a plate of miniature, but healthy sandwiches and sit down to "tea," while your child pours. -EFFIE LEE ESTES
IDEA! CAKE FOR BABY: For baby's first birthday, pile mashed potatoes into the shape of a cake, surround with "frosting" of buttered beets or spinach, and center it with a hollowed-out cooked carrot candle holder and an asparagus stalk candle. - MRS. ELMER STOWELL
MYSTERY MAKES MONEY: If you're giving a benefit party, remember that curiosity is one of your best allies, and wrap up the white elephants instead of letting them stand out in the open for sale. People are much more likely to part with their nickels and dimes if they aren't sure of what they'll get. - MRS. DAVID CANFIELD
IDEA! MY THINKING-TIME BILLBOARD is thin wood veneer decorated with decals appropriate to the kitchen and is hung on the wall with tiny rings and glass-headed picture tacks. It holds ABC vitamin lore, perhaps a club speech to be "polished off," a lovely poem, a new recipe, or the day's menu. - MARION FISCHER
TO SAVE THE FLOOR: To eliminate those dark smudges on linoleum caused by the bottom of chromium kitchen chairs, apply Scotch tape to the parts touching the floor. - MRS. FRANK JACKLE
IDEA! Yes, it's done with mirrors--big ones or little ones, whole ones or in pieces--hung on strings or thing wires here and there in the fruit garden so that they swing and send flashes of sunlight in all directions. Robber birds just can't figure out what it's all about, so they go away from there as fast as their wings will carry them. - MAY LEWIS

These things worked in 1942, people, and they'll work now. Help us win the war! Make your babies vegetable birthday cakes!

Auto Bailouts

This week in my accounting class we've just been researching and discussing the auto bailouts. We broke into groups and looked at the financial statements for Ford and GM (Chrysler is a privately owned company, so their statements are not public), and we did a bunch of calculations for their numbers from the past five years, and looked at trends. We also researched what Ford and GM have told the government they're going to do. Today we just had a big discussion about it.

Here are some of the more interesting things:

1. The only reason Ford even exists anymore is because of debt. They have negative owners equity. Which pretty much means, they don't have any of their own money that they've put into the company.

2. Ford has like $165 BILLION in debt. They're asking for like $9 billion total from us taxpayers. Which is nothing compared to what they owe. Sooooo, what are they going to do with the money that is going to make the difference? They're not saying.

3. This is my favorite fact, which I didn't know, and I think most people don't know. The CEOs of all three companies have said that they would take $1 salary. Now, when people hear that, they think that these guys are going to take only $1 for the whole year. I thought that too. That's not what it is at all though. These guys take a salary and compensation. So for example, for Ford, the CEO is Alan Mulally. His salary is normally $2 million dollars, and then he gets $18.5 million in other compensation. So him taking $1 salary means that next year he would be willing, out of the goodness of his heart, when his company is failing, to only make $18.5 million instead of $20.5 million. They're not offering to work basically for free. At all. It's a drop in the bucket, and it should be insulting to us that they would offer that. I totally thought it meant he would take $1 for the year. Not so.

4. The companies offer a lot of fluff, and some things that are real. Saying they'll make smaller cars, which are supposed to be more profitable (how profitable? says who? why are we only realizing this now?) is fluff. Saying they're selling their private jets (for how much? compared to how much debt?) is fluff. Selling Volvo (for how much? this year it wasn't profitable...) is fluff. GM selling Saturn and cutting Pontiac is fluff. Merging with Chrysler is fluff. None of those things have any numbers along with them, none of them indicate any real change to the business model, and none of the plan indicates how using our tax money will make any difference.

The things that are real are the innocent people. Ford and GM will be shutting down dealerships and plants. Most of the plants are in the Midwest. The plants are in cities where everyone works at the plant. And people don't really have bachelors degrees, because they work at the plant and their parents, and maybe their grandparents did. So when these places close, it's going to completely change life for the people in those cities. And that sucks for them. Because it isn't their fault the CEOs have been managing the companies very irresponsibly for the past 10 or 20 years. [But it doesn't cost money to shut down dealerships and plants and to lay people off, so where is our tax money going?]

Anyhow. They'll get their money, but I guarantee they'll be back in 3 months asking for more.

Really, though, I just wanted to share the part about the $1 salaries. Because I thought that was super shady.

Random!

In my US Government class, we have weekly quizzes. On Fridays. This week, we have the option of writing a paper that assess two of the presidential election candidates (Obama/McCain or Barr/Nader) on their personal qualities and their views on issues, and then we also talk about what our political party identification is.

Since a lot of people think they're one party or the other but their views match something else, we're supposed to do a short exercise online which tells us what party we actually match up with based on our opinions of 30? things. And then the results are pretty specific, too--there are Republicans who are "Enterprisers", there are "Social Conservatives", and "Pro-Government Conservatives." Or, there are "Liberals", "Disadvantaged Democrats", and "Conservative Democrats". Plus there are "Upbeats" and "Disaffecteds" and "Bystanders." Huh. Interesting.

It takes like, a minute to complete. If you want to do it, you can here:
http://typology.people-press.org/typology/

And you don't have to enter your email address or anything.

But anyway, what I really wanted to post about is:
I'm doing the essay instead of a quiz this Friday (since I'm going to be in Boston and would miss the quiz). An issue that I'm saying is important to me is "he/she would be a good commander-in-chief" and I'm looking for evidence that one of the candidates is not qualified.

I'm looking at congressional voting records.

AND, turns out, you can sort voting records by astrological sign. On the Washington Post website. For example, you can see here that on a vote confirming John G. Roberts, Jr., of Maryland, to be Chief Justice of the United States, all 5 Aries voted Yes, and so did all 4 Geminis. Or in the same vote, you can also sort to see the results divided by gender, Baby Boomer/ Pre-Boomer status, and when the voter is up for re-election. (Also, you can sort by the party, state, and region. But I expected those.)

Random! I wonder if they put that in there just for fun, or if there are people who take that stuff seriously.

Michael Ramirez!

Remember how I've mentioned that I love political cartoons by Michael Ramirez?

WELL! I subscribed to emails from IBD which have his daily cartoon in them. Or a link to them anyway.

And when I clicked the link today, it was...

A selection of Michael Ramirez's 2008 Pulitzer Prize Winning Cartoons.

What? Awesome. He won a Pulitzer Prize! But, not only that, turns out he won one in 1994 too!

AND, not only that, he has a new book! Of his cartoons! This book comprises my wishlist for Christmas and future birthdays, until I get it or until I have extra money to spend on books. And, on the page about the book, there's a picture of him. So I finally saw what he looks like. (AND, the book is endorsed by twelve excellent people. See? This isn't like how everyone liked the Green Bay Packers when they were winning, or the Chicago Bulls. I totally blogged about him before he won his prize this year. I have such good taste. Hm.)

I'm thrilled. And if you like political cartoons at all, you should check out today's selection, because you'll love them too.

My Favorite Political Cartoonist

I've had a favorite political cartoonist for years. His name is Michael Ramirez, and he drew for the Los Angeles Times. I used to enjoy the cartoons in the actual newspapers, and then they became available online. But they were really tricky to get to on the LA Times website and you had to register.

WELL, turns out they fired him while I was on my mission! LAME!

BUT, now he draws for Investor's Business Daily. And, you don't have to register for anything to see them.

Check out Michael Ramirez' political cartoons here:
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/cartoons.aspx

School Stories 11 - Misc

Just a few random things from the past few days, that I thought were worth sharing.

Yesterday in English, we had to bring an item so that everyone could think critically about it. For example, the guy who likes beer brought a beer bottle, and we thought critically: why are beer bottles shaped the way they are? Why is the label the way that it is? Is the beer different because it's imported? Why is the beer different because it's imported? Etc, etc. Some people forgot to bring items for us to analyze. Other people "brought" things like their cellphone or a pen. (I took a fortune cookie. What does that say about society?) My favorite item though...

"I brought in a ceramic mushroom." (Rannndom.) "I used to work in a ceramic mushroom factory." (Whaaaat....?) The class laughed. "Old ladies go nuts for these things." Awesome.

And then for my other class, we had to read "just a few poems" ( = over 50 pages). My favorite parts from that were:

- From the description of Tennyson,
"Tall, ruggedly handsome, and with a faraway look in his eyes that was actually due to myopia, Tennyson fit everyone's idea of how a poet should look."

(p. 1231, The Longman Anthology of British Literature, Volume 2B, The Victorian Age.)

I just really love the part about how he had a faraway look in his eyes, and that made him look like a poet, but that it was actually because he couldn't see. And that they wrote about it in the anthology. Good job.

- "Swans can live as many as 50 years."
(from a footnote for Tithonus, p.1246)

Huh. Who knew?

And then, this morning in my US Government class, the professor posted this:

Test
Short Answer

A liberal is a guy who believes in school busing, but he does not believe there should be prayers in school.
A conservative believes in school prayer but no school busing.
A moderate believes children should pray on the bus on the way to school.

Based on class discussions, it seems like there are far, far more liberals in my class than conservatives. (Even though I'm at a Utah university.) It makes me want to start a College Republicans club (there's College Democrats one) and join the NRA. No problem. It was just like this in California.

I'm also thinking of starting a Knitting Club, since it doesn't seem like there is one. There is a nine page listing of clubs, and there are no College Republicans OR Knitting clubs. Next week is our big thing where all of the clubs set up booths and try to get you to join, so I suspect I'll have more to say after that.

In other news, I finally have a house in Salt Lake. And I think I'm getting sick. And I read Twilight. (Which I thought I would read never in a million years, but actually ended up liking. Go figure.) My favorite thing about Twilight (aside from Edward, of course) was all of the foreshadowing. Awesome. Annnd, I'm actually at the library right now because I had to pick up the second one. Which my school library has ONE copy of, and it was in. Which is probably because all of the other University of Utah students are reading real books. Whatever.

Thoughts on Democracy and Voting

From a very young age, I have sometimes been interested in politics.

My first memory of political awareness and interest was from the second house that I remember living in. Almost everyone in my city had gardeners, and we did too. We had a few sculpted bushes in our front yard. "LOOK!" I'd tell someone, probably my parents (but maybe anyone who would listen). "PRESIDENT BUSH IS IN OUR FRONT YARD!" They would pretend to be interested, and I would lead them outside to one of the tall sculpted bushes. "See," I'd say. "President Bush." I would have been in first or second grade, and I remember thinking it was a clever joke, because Bush was the President's name, and we had one in our yard.

I remember some major political events, but the only other time I remember being especially interested was for my senior year of high school. I had an extremely liberal civics teacher, and I would correct him when he stated his opinions as facts. Most of my classmates were also very liberal (or didn't know or care, or care to know), so someone had to do it. [Dr. R agreed that he was doing it, anyway, and started drawing attention to the times when he didn't. "That is a fact, Ms. Mylastname," he would announce.] I was in that class for the 2000 election, and it was no secret that Dr. Ramp. did not want Bush to win. I was also 17, and could not vote. (Oh, the misery!) When Bush did win, I brought Republican BUSH cupcakes for my whole class, in celebration. They had red dots inside, and red sprinkles on top and said BUSH on each cupcake. I think I've blogged about that before, actually. But honestly, I don't think I knew too much about what Bush wanted for our country. Not really.

For my first year of college, I did student government, and was one of the senators. It was fun enough. I helped people register to vote, and I was moderately interested in politics for a little while.

And then, I completely lost interest in politics, and the news. On my mission, we were not supposed to discuss politics with people or follow the news, so that made it easier to be disinterested. But when I got back, I really wasn't interested either.

I think the main reasons were:
1. It takes a long time to follow the news and really have a good idea of what is going on. Reading up on issues and candidates is just very time consuming.
2. I got tired of hearing about the same things over and over again. I knew that September 11th had been something important for our country. I knew that people were dying in Iraq, and I knew that we were looking for Bin Laden, and I didn't want to hear the same things every day for months and years on end.
3. So much of the news and politics is negative. I have enough problems in my life without having to feel bad for even more people. It wasn't that I meant to be insensitive, just that watching the news made me sad, and I didn't want to feel sad about stuff that I couldn't really do anything about.
4. It seems like a lot of news and politics are subjective, and it's hard to predict what America really needs, or what will really work. Or how important integrity is among politicians, or how big of a role government ought to have. Everyone has such different feelings about it, and they all feel strongly about it, and I can kind of see where everyone is coming from. Since I can relate to most of the sides, it's hard to make a decision (especially without having taken the time to really understand the issues.)

There were probably other reasons, too. But I became really moderate, and stopped voting in local elections, and didn't read newspapers or watch the news on TV. I became really, really uninformed.

And then, for some reason, I became really interested in this presidential election. And politics in general. And when I visited DC, and took a tour of the Capitol, I became fascinated. It made me want to serve in the House of Representatives. It made me want to know what is going on, and do something. I've been following the news all day, every day since my trip. And I find it really dynamic and interesting.

Plus, I've been reading things that really talk a lot about how inactive my generation is, politically, and I can completely understand that, but I can also understand why we need to participate.

It is not our responsibility to put flag bumper stickers on our minivans, or to buy lots of fireworks for the Fourth of July, or to attend our American History classes just because we have to. But we do need to vote. We do need to learn about issues, and vote based on what we really feel or know to be right. And not for who or what our friends or families vote for, or for who we think would be cool for no reason. And if it's time consuming, or boring, or sad, that doesn't mean that we don't need to be responsible citizens anymore.

Democracy depends on people being informed and voting.