Breaking News: US Politics getting Political

A little dated, this email was written a while back, but I am itching to start blogging again so here goes with a doozy - Editors Note

Uh oh - - Somebody didn't do their homework...

Okay, I am just loving politics right now - and I am not even a political person. But it's mighty interesting, ain't it folks?

Last week I had emailed staunch McCain supporter, Patrick, that McCain's 'choosing a woman, pro-choice conservative with a blue-collar working, half Eskimo husband' as his Vice President running mate was 'brilliant and the best decision he could have made". I was referring to the Republicans being able to scoop up the Christian pro-choice votes, all the feminists who wanted to vote for Hilary and have a woman in the White House, and garner the minority vote in her husband's lineage. I even commented to P, that "I was actually starting to believe that McCain might win the presidency after all..."

Whew! Let's not get all crazy out there on the worldwide web - let me clarify to those who don't know me that I am a registered Independent and am middle of the road - but definitely more liberal than conservative - despite a lot of my old-fsahion values and Catholic upbringing. I also didn't know until about today who I was voting for and was very open to hearing Patrick, Bill O'Reilly and Fox news TVs pro-Republican opinions and perspectives for the past 2.5 years.

That said, I laugh, YES: laugh at the turn of events that is currently going on. Firstly, my heart goes to out to Palin's 17 year old daughter for being sucked into the public eye like this (her mom should have not accepted just in order to keep her daughter's future therapy bills in mind). Yes, the ultra pro-choice, bikini-wearing while gun-toting, photogenic possible Vice Prez has a pregnant, high-school aged, unmarried daughter. I know I am going to rub my Conservative readers wrong when I say I have been teaching teens for almost a decade now - and I am going to tell you this - I highly doubt that poor girl is thrilled or not totally humiliated to be having a baby and now having to wed this boy when they are of age. A lot of parents and adults out there do NOT have a clue what is going on in schools and how bad it is. Kids are seriously having sex and fooling around more than any of you ever did and want to admit. And, yes, people, they are having abortions (even if it is terrifying and breaks their hearts and religious upbringing).

I have few opinions on politics, but one of them is on this issue - I am pro-choice. No, I was not raised that way. But I am now. And I will never accept that females cannot research and make that difficult decision without it being illegal. Be it alone, with the father, or with their parents or adult consent is a different issue that certainly warrants addressing - but to have a bunch of old white MEN in Congress dictate whether or not girls can even MAKE the choice - really gets my goat. Do I believe this young girl is 'happy' with her situation and has not secretly wished she could even fathom giving up the child but couldn't even give it a fair thought due to her mother's political career and opinions??? Well...my experience leans towards something a lot of you don't want to, or are in denial of hearing, but should be aware or prepared to hear if you are a parent.

Shoot, do my parents - ultra Catholic, God-serving, educated, old-fashioned, and of Mexican heritage like hearing that I am pro-choice now for over a decade and that I (gasp) have gay friends and I support gay marriage??? HELL, no - but I do and they love me all the same - even if they can't understand my opinions on those issues. But at least, I COULD make the choice to change my opinions from the Catholic upbringing that I blindly accepted my entire church-going life to what I believe in now. This poor gal couldn't even make that choice.

I think that McCain was hasty about making his VP decision. Everyone knows he wanted Ridge and another who are both pro-choice - so he couldn't choose them to lose the Christian vote. I believe he didn't know about the pregnancy or was naive about not thinking it would affect his whole campaign. I am sorry, the whole thing is laughable to me. Not the daughter, again, no, not her- I feel awful for her in the public eye and trying to hide her growing belly on TV by holding her new baby brother on her lap at the Rep Convention - yeah, that wasn't thought-out at all, right??? But I have been watching TV and listening to NPR and to anyone who keeps saying what is going on shouldn't be 'political' -puleaseee - it IS political that this woman has a teenage pregnant, unwed daughter. It is political that this woman is a virtual unknown with not much experience - although I applaud her energy-conservation efforts - one of the few things besides, gay rights, and pro choice and the war that I am interested in. And, of course, I think it's a great step forward having a possible woman in the White House. Although Hillary and others paved the route for Palin. (This is all probably killing Hilary right now, by the way - seeing that a virtual unknown female of a month ago may now be in the White House).

But let's also be realistic - McCain was hasty in choosing her. And I think he chose her hastily mostly because he felt he needed to 'shake things up' after the stunning Democratic convention last week. But let's remember, the man is 72 years old, that means he could be potentially 80 by the time he leaves 2 terms. This woman is truly, a heartbeat, away from taking over the White House -helllooooo! She best keep on getting that beauty sleep 'cause she's going to need it he hehe.

Ahhhh, I am not unfair. It would be unfair to point out her relative inexperience - akin to Obama - I am NO hypocrite. But, I think Obama made his own 'brilliant' choice in VP running mate Joe Biden as he is older (to balance out Obama's youth and inexperience), white (he he he - let's face it - if Obama had chosen a woman or another minority - I don't think the USA would quite be ready for all that minority and ethnicity hehehehe), and Biden has experience in foreign policy (same balancing act as the previous sentence).

Soooo...I am thinking that I am getting closer to deciding who I will be voting for - and if any of you have a problem with that - let's hear your opinions here (I know I am going to be hearing it anyway uh oh!!) or you can always stake out my mailman, pull a Tanya Harding on him by taking him out by the knee, stealing my voter mail-in ballot and ripping it passionately to shreds.

"Work it out", be involved, have an opinion and Vote!!

Ben Stein's last Column is a lesson learned...

** I saw Ben Stein tonight as a guest on the uber-Republican "O'Reilly Factor" (Patrick loves it). It made me remember this that my sister-in-law sent out a couple years ago. It's some serious food for thought... **

For many years Ben Stein has written a biweekly column called "Monday Night At Morton's." (Morton's is a famous chain of Steakhouses known to be frequented by movie stars and famous people from around the globe.) Now, Ben is terminating the column to move on to other things in his life. Reading his final column is worth a few minutes of your time.

Ben Stein's Last Column...
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How Can Someone Who Lives in Insane Luxury Be a Star in Today's World?

As I begin to write this, I "slug" it, as we writers say, which means I put a heading on top of the document to identify it. This heading is "eonlineFINAL," and it gives me a shiver to write it. I have been doing this column for so long that I cannot even recall when I started. I loved writing this column so much for so long I came to believe it would never end.

It worked well for a long time, but gradually, my changing as a person and the world's change have overtaken it. On a small scale, Morton's, while better than ever, no longer attracts as many stars as it used to. It still brings in the rich people in droves and definitely some stars. I saw Samuel L. Jackson there a few days ago, and we had a nice visit, and right before that, I saw and had a splendid talk with Warren Beatty in an elevator, in which we agreed that Splendor in the Grass was a super movie. But Morton's is not the star galaxy it once was, though it probably will be again.


Beyond that, a bigger change has happened. I no longer think Hollywood stars are terribly important. They are uniformly pleasant, friendly people, and they treat me better than I deserve to be treated. But a man or woman who makes a huge wage for memorizing lines and reciting them in front of a camera is no longer my idea of a shining star we should all look up to.

How can a man or woman who makes an eight-figure wage and lives in insane luxury really be a star in today's world, if by a "star" we mean someone bright and powerful and attractive as a role model? Real stars are not riding around in the backs of limousines or in Porsches or getting trained in yoga or Pilates and eating only raw fruit while they have Vietnamese girls do their nails.

They can be interesting, nice people, but they are not heroes to me any longer. A real star is the soldier of the 4th Infantry Division who poked his head into a hole on a farm near Tikrit, Iraq. He could have been met by a bomb or a hail of AK-47 bullets. Instead, he faced an abject Saddam Hussein and the gratitude of all of the decent people of the world.

A real star is the U.S.soldier who was sent to disarm a bomb next to a road north of Baghdad. He approached it, and the bomb went off and killed him.

A real star, the kind who haunts my memory night and day, is the U.S. soldier in Baghdad who saw a little girl playing with a piece of unexploded ordnance on a street near where he was guarding a station. He pushed her aside and threw himself on it just as it exploded. He left a family desolate in California and a little girl alive in Baghdad.

The stars who deserve media attention are not the ones who have lavish weddings on TV but the ones who patrol the streets of Mosuleven after two of their buddies were murdered and their bodies battered and stripped for the sin of trying to protect Iraqis from terrorists.

We put couples with incomes of $100 million a year on the covers of our magazines. The noncoms and officers who barely scrape by on military pay but stand on guard in Afghanistan and Iraq and on ships and in submarines and near the Arctic Circle are anonymous as they live and die.

I am no longer comfortable being a part of the system that has such poor values, and I do not want to perpetuate those values by pretending that who is eating at Morton's is a big subject.

There are plenty of other stars in the American firmament...the policemen and women who go off on patrol in South Central and have no idea if they will return alive; the orderlies and paramedics who bring in people who have been in terrible accidents and prepare them for surgery; the teachers and nurses who throw their whole spirits into caring for autistic children; the kind men and women who work in hospices and in cancer wards. Also, let's honor the dear Christian man who after 8 years of devoted study,became a missionary in Indonesia, with his wife & 2 small sons; and all the missionaries all over the world who bring Jesus into the hearts of foreigners!

Think of each and every fireman who was running up the stairs at the World Trade Center as the towers began to collapse. Now you have my idea of real heros.

I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters. This is my highest and best use as a human. I can put it another way. Years ago, I realized I could never be as great an actor as Olivier or as good a comic as Steve Martin...or Martin Mull or Fred Willard--or as good an economist as Samuelson or Friedman or as good a writer as Fitzgerald. Or even remotely close to any of them.

But I could be a devoted father to my son, husband to my wife and, above all, a good son to the parents who had done so much for me. This came to be my main task in life. I did it moderately well with my son, pretty well with my wife and well indeed with my parents (with my sister's help). I cared for and paid attention to them in their declining years. I stayed with my father as he got sick, went into extremis and then into a coma and then entered immortality with my sister and me reading him the Psalms.

This was the only point at which my life touched the lives of the soldiers in Iraqor the firefighters in New York. I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters and that it is my duty, in return for the lavish life God has devolved upon me, to help others He has placed in my path. This is my highest and best use as a human.

Faith is not believing that God can. It is knowing that God will.
By Ben Stein