Not So Random Thought

I wish grapefruits were easier to eat. I'm all sticky now.

Switching to the Dark Side Part 1

Note: Lola was kind enough to offer her blog to post on. However, I decided to post this here. It's somewhat a touchy subject - politics - and I wanted a place where I can be honest, without upsetting a whole bunch of people, however I don't thinks people will be too upset.... Also this is not a blog post about trying to change anyone's opinion. This is just a post about how I came to have mine. So thank you Lola for giving the incentive to write this.


Let me start with a quote often attributed to Winston Churchill,(but was not said by him)"If you're not a liberal when you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative by the time you're 35, you have no brain."

This was quoted to me by my uncle my Freshman of college. I remembering being extremely irritated by his remark, at that point I was an ardent liberal and his remark did not sit well with me. My family had emigrated from the Soviet Union when I was very young and I saw first hand how helpful the welfare system was (within a year of being on welfare my parents both had jobs). Sure I has some qualms about things like Affirmative-Action, believing, like my father did, that when the system is unfair you have to work twice as hard to prove yourself; but who was I to judge the experience of black Americans?

In my mind being a liberal was being a good human being. It was about taking care of the poor, being understanding and open minded, it was about freedom - letting people decide personal issues for themselves, taking care of the environment, and it was about abandoning the old for the new(aka being hip).

On the other hand I equated being a Republican with being greedy, close minded, racist, meddling in personal affairs, prudish, and needing to constantly conform to a specific ideal. Republicans were evil and I did not understand how they lived with themselves.

Yes, I was very naive and somewhat simple minded. You might chalk it up to my youth and inexperience, yet I have met many adults who thought/think exactly as I did. I should also mention that I grew up in a Boston suburb and went to school in Boston. Most of my professors reinforced my long-held beliefs. Almost everyone I knew was liberal and when I encountered someone who was not I was bewildered, especially if I liked the person.

I remembering learning that a friend's father, who I admired and loved, was a Republican. I couldn't believe it. This rational, warm, and caring man stood for everything I despised. I couldn't reconcile the it. Another time, I became friendly with a girl in one of my literature classes. She was really cool and we ended up going to see Ibrahim Ferrer from the Buena Vista Social Club. Somehow on the way back she mentioned she was a Republican. Again I felt confused, she was cool and like the same things as I did, yet she was a Republican? After that I didn't pay much attention to her. I was still nice and cordial to her, but I had no further interest in furthering our friendship.

However, the year I went to college three things happened which would have significant effect on how I thought.
1) 9/11
2) The start of the 2nd Intifada against Israel
3) For the first time I had a boyfriend and he was from the South and was Libertarian

Most people would call me a 9/11 Conservative. Someone who changed how they saw the world after 9/11.

And Now I've Seen Everything

I know that India has a tiny Jewish population. Yet seeing the Bollywood version of Have-Nagilla is plain weird.

via Jewlicious

A Priceless Accessory

I while back, riding the train I noticed an unremarkable woman sitting a bit in front and across from me. She wasn't especially pretty, she was slender but not in a graceful way, the best thing you could say about her wardrobe of a dull gray sweater and uninspiring black slacks was that it was neat. And yet, I kept catching myself looking at her and finding myself drawn to her.
At the top of her left ear was a tiny brown, round, birthmark. All of sudden this rather dull passenger, who I would instantly judge and move on to other, more glorious subjects, became incredible alluring. The small imperfection somehow made her incredibly sexy and desirous. At some point I found myself wanting to kiss her ear, it was the strangest urge.
I'm happy to report I did not act on this urge. I sat there amazed at home such a small detail, a supposed imperfection can transform a person!

It also made me think of Hawthorne's The Birthmark a cautionary story of scientific hubris and not seeing perfection in the imperfection of nature.

"Masculine observers, if the birthmark did not heighten their admiration, contented themselves with wishing it away, that the world might possess one living specimen of ideal loveliness without the semblance of a flaw. "

Good Idea, Bad Idea

Good Idea: Making blini (Russian crepes) with my Mom. They were delicious, plus I got have Mother/Daughter time with my mother.
(On a side note, Manhattan Murder Mystery was playing in the background. Best line in the movie:"I can't listen to that much Wagner, ya know? I start to get the urge to conquer Poland." It also struck me how much Woody Allen's mannerisms resemble Grocho Marx, I never noticed before how much he steals (not just references) Marx's schitick (see the Poker playing scene).)

Bad Idea: Going to an intense spin class less than two hours after eating blini. Funny, but they don't taste as good coming up from the stomach. Oy.

A Must See

via DrewM at ace's

A great answer to a thought-crime question.



Ezra Levant's (who happens to be Jewish) opening statement shouldn't be missed either.



Straight out of Kafka or Orwell. Chilling.
See the whole embarrassing "proceedings."

Odd

I think it's the oddest thing when in the middle of an intense emotionally scarring conversation, I can switch off and with the same person , start handling practical minutia.

It's amazing how the brain works, oh and the heart ain't bad either.

True Fact About My Life

If I plan on replacing my ratty old underwear with new underwear, I need to throw out the old underwear before I buy the new. Otherwise the old underwear just stays and becomes an excuse for not to doing laundry another week.

On Being Cool

From Juno:

Juno MacGuff: No, I mean, like, for real. 'Cause you're, like, the coolest person I've ever met, and you don't even have to try, you know...

Paulie Bleeker: I try really hard, actually.

As Usual Michael Cera is the Funniest

Good thing I don't believe in hell...

because that is where I'm going.

Conversation of the day on im:

me: the guy who cleans our office just came in
and he skeeves me out
every single time
i think he is mildly retarded
i really don't do well around retards

What Others Think

I was haphazardly listening to NPR this morning. It was the same drill - "America is declining, people around the world don't approve of America, etc." I had to stop and think for a minute. Why, as an America, would I care what someone in Poland or Idonesia or any other country in the world thinks of me?
I have travelled enough outside the US to know that people have very funny notions of what Americans are, how they live, and how our government operates - and most of those notions are either completely false or based on outrageous stereotypes that are very far from the truth. And it's not like the people I encountered were uneducated or naive - nope, most of them pride themselves on "being in the know."
So yet again, I'm forced to ponder why should I care that people around the world, most of whom I probably don't respect anyway, think about the country I live in. Do the Chinese worry that most of the world thinks they have a ruthless and oppressive government? No they go about thinking they are superior to everyone else. Granted I don't wan the US to end up like China, but I'm tired of hearing how America has lost standing with the world. Look, it never really had standing with the world in the first place. So let it go. World politics are not about holding hands and patting everyone on the back, it's about doing what is best for once citizens, even if some guy in a bar in Peru thinks it's morally corrupt or any other kindergarten concept that people have taken to heart when reffering to the real world.
Haven't we been taught by our wonderful - self-esteem ecouraging school systems not to care what others think of us? So for once, I will heed the advice of teachers and not care!

Anyway, this is all a way for me to post a funnier take on the subject by MLICS, who is an American currently living Greece.

I happen to be the only American working on my floor, surrounded by Brits, Canadians and a few Greek mixes. For some reason, these foreigners claim to know more about American life and society than I do, without ever having stepped foot there.

Now, I’m not going to say I support the war or the Bush administration, but I’ll be damned when a bunch of rotten-toothed Brits or chip-on-their-shoulder carrying Canadians are going to tell me about life in the States. I don’t think so.