Wow, well it certainly has been a while. Technically I shouldn't even be taking this time to write, but I REALLY wanted to. Over the Thanksgiving break I went home and realized how NOT liberal my family is. I mean, they have their moments of liberal tendencies, but in reality, I am a freak in our family gatherings. Jokes are cracked, and while I know my family means well, there are times I want to completely speak out against their comments. And if I DO speak out against their comments, they'll get all defensive and wonder why the hell I'm taking their JOKES so damn seriously. ANYWAY, I think my little brother still might be salvagable...he was making some comment and bashing on liberals and said something along the lines of "yeah, but at least you aren't a liberal" and I promptly corrected him. He kinda looked bashful, so I think if nothing else he might stop shooting his mouth off. And my mom made some comment that made me think she's for the legalization of prostitution and marijuana...which is a little odd...but I'm not gonna complain. They tend to suprise me with both sides of the political spectrum all the time.

So I jumped back on the internet today, briefly interrupting my involuntary hiatus, and started pokin my nose around in the worldy happenings (nothing too large of scale, its been a while, must EASE back in), and I found this page from Lauren's page and I enjoyed it. I especially (like Lauren) enjoyed the suggested reading for whatever category you fell under. I almost want to read the suggested readings for every category so as to make myself more well rounded and get other views. However, with as little free time as I've had lately, I don't even see ONE BOOK let alone MANY books in my near future. We'll see.

Also saw on Lauren's page (geez, just go read her stuff since I'm merely spitting out the same info over again) that the Texas Board of Education decided to use textbooks teaching evolution instead of creationism. Way to go. Bout fuckin time. Couldn't really believe that this is a NEW development...almost scary really.

I'm all for gay marriages...so I really hope some good decisions are made about this.

Heh. Amusing, and yet oh so scary.

Hmmm....

Ashley and I have had several discussions about how she has had to somewhat turn off her empathetic impulses because it just bothered her too much and she would stay awake at night worrying about the state of the world and such. Let me just say, that worried me that she tried to push these feelings to a back burner, because the fact that she cared THAT MUCH, and especially in high school (cause goodness knows I didnt give a shit about things in high school) was amazing to me. But let me just say, upon reading her away msg today, I realized she is far from apathetic, and I love her to death. What I do NOT love is our president, who, as a man, is deciding what women can and cannot do with the own bodies. I don't think anyone should be able to say what others can and can't do with their bodies, but what exactly gives men a right to say ANYTHING about what women do with their bodies? Anyway, its all bullshit...this was Ashley's away msg:

Ladies, prepare to hand over some of your rights... Our government is saving you the trouble of making decisions about your body, by just taking away your options. >:o

Someone should let G.W. know about this constitution thing...

Looking back over that last post, I noticed that I didn't appear to make much sense. We got the cat after I moved back to North Carolina, and I haven't been home since then, so I haven't met the cat, whose name is Tigger. The dog is my brother's dog Austin (aka Ozzie aka Oz), but since both of our dogs are mainly the family's dogs, it's kinda my dog, but kinda not. MY dog is a cute golden retriever named Chance (aka Chancer), who I will try to get pictures of to put on here :) ok, I feel better now. Bye!

My cute cat whom I've never met, and my dog...well...not MY dog, but the dog. Cute huh? Apparently the cat has taken a liking to curling up with the dogs, how cute is that?? :) Also, fun quote from my friend Bailey's profile:

"If you listen to a lot of conservatives, they'll tell you that the difference between them and us is that conservatives love America and liberals hate America...They don't get it. We love America just as much as they do. But in a different way. You see, they love America the way a 4-year-old loves her mommy. Liberals love America like grown-ups. To a 4-year-old, everything Mommy does is wonderful and anyone who criticizes Mommy is bad. Grown-up love means actually understanding what you love, taking the good with the bad, and helping your loved one grow. Love takes attention and work and is the best thing in the world." -Al Franken

Ok, more posts later, bye!

Ok, my beautiful rant about how great Jump is got lost, but all is well. Basically I just said that they've been my favorite band for about 5 years because I've had some experiences of a lifetime because of them, thats why I'll always be willing to give them my money haha...yeah...ok

I got this via IM today from my friend Sarah, so attend:

Hey, this week American Civil Liberties Union at NCSU, like other universities is participating in the National Week of Student Action to Oppose the Patriot Act. We will on the Brick Yard this Fri. with some information about the Anti-Patriot Act efforts occurring on the local level here in Raleigh and at NC State. Stop by our table on Friday to sign some petitions, call John Edwards (free), and get some Halloween candy. This is one of those typical forwards. That means if you do not send it forward to at least 10 NC State students, your Halloween will suck. If you send this to all the NC State students you know, you will get to keep some of your Civil Liberties. - ACLU@NCSU

(I didn't forward it, but I'm already plannin on havin a chill Halloween anyway, so I'm not too worried hehe)

Oh, and I wanted to show the tattoo that Ashley wants to get, and wants me to get too :) I don't know about tattoos but, at least take a look and tell me what you think. The vine in the middle is a "V" for vegetarian hehe.

Well. I have lots to say, but little time to say it in, since I actually plan on getting sleep tonight.

First, let me just say that it is a tragedy that Elliot Smith has passed away. I first heard an Elliot Smith cd at a Jump, Little Children show. I absolutely loved the beautiful, haunting sounds of his music, which sounded sad yet somehow upbeat, and I had to know who was the maker of the sounds falling over me. No one else seemed to be paying attention, because it was merely music to take up space between the opener and Jump, but I bugged my friend Robyn to tell me who it was. She was like "oh, that's Elliot Smith...He's good, but a little too mellow". I not only did not think of him as too mellow, I thought he was the closest thing to the Beatles since...well...the Beatles, and that he was amazing. His harmonies are miraculous, and the raw sound of the strumming of the guitar lets you hear his pure talent. And I feel purely selfish for some of my first thoughts being "I never got to go to a show!" and "No more cds??". Why is it that some of the most brilliant people have the hardest time with life? I heard a quote once that said "Life's harder the deeper you feel things". Yup. Anyway, go listen to A Question Mark, or Tomorrow Tomorrow...right now.

My friends Stephen and Melissa were representin at this past weekend's propeace rally in DC.
I have some really fun pictures that Stephen sent me from it.
So what's this I hear about boycotting coke? I mean, big corporation, I can see it as a nice statement, but honestly, some vices I have issues with giving up hehe. Someone fill me in on what's up with that and why people were apparently trying to push a boycott against coke at the rally.

I went CAMPING this last weekend, and my friend Ashley has some lovely pictures :) We hiked like 7 miles all around Hanging Rock park. It was crazy, but lots of fun.

I have a ton of different sites to refer to because Lauren who is one of the most politically minded people that I know, totally sent me in great directions for information. I haven't had a chance to look through all of them, but I'd say 9 times out of 10 I would trust anything given to me by Lauren. In fact, I have yet to come across anything that I didn't like that I was sent to by her, so I guess 10 out of 10. Also, just for reference, John is her boyfriend, and together they are the cutest, most politically aware, awesome couple...well...ever. Plus John has some interesting thoughts about Dean. I'm still not sure where I stand on the whole election issue, but I'm working on it. Like I said, I'm on the search for information, but school is slightly hindering this (ie my test today and my paper due tomorrow, RA duty tomorrow night as well as an inservice, planning a meatless thanksgiving dinner as a program, then Wednesday I have a staff meeting and a Jump concert I must attend :)). Anyway, below John's comments about Dean there is a response arguing against Dean, so if you are so inclined, feel free to browse that too.

And now for all the other links that Lauren sent me to:
Anybody but Bush...but... (looks like a lot of people arguing back and forth on what is up about how to get rid of Bush, the best way to do that, and what is the most realistic ways of achieving that goal. I haven't had a chance to finish reading, but feel free to browse.
DSA - This is democratic socialism, so its not QUITE socialism. It seems right up my alley, since I honestly don't know if I would consider myself a socialist. In looking up what socialism is exactly, I found:
socialism -
\So"cial*ism\, n. [Cf. F. socialisme.] A theory or system of social reform which contemplates a complete reconstruction of society, with a more just and equitable distribution of property and labor. In popular usage, the term is often employed to indicate any lawless, revolutionary social scheme.

So while I'm not really all about the "lawlessness", I really can dig the "more just and equitable" part. I guess mainly I agree with this in moderation.
I enjoy this from the site though:
"We are socialists because we reject an international economic order sustained by private profit, alienated labor, race and gender discrimination, environmental destruction, and brutality and violence in defense of the status quo.
We are socialists because we share a vision of a humane international social order based both on democratic planning and market mechanisms to achieve equitable distribution of resources, meaningful work, a healthy environment, sustainable growth, gender and racial equality, and non-oppressive relationships."

Well, that's about it for tonight, and clearly I've spent too much time on this entry because it is long, rambling, and...and its almost 2am. There go my hopes for sleep. Oh well, it was worth it :)

Well, I definitely picked the worst possible entry to leave up for days on end.
(conditioner, coca cola, hair clips, trash bags...)
Yes, already this blog is going downhill...I blame school...seriously.

However, I suppose I can start that ranting I had promised. In my criminology class on Wednesday of last week we watched a movie about the death penalty and mainly how the "justice" system deals with the death penalty in relation to minors. Can someone explain to me how people who aren't even old enough to be considered compitent enough to vote or drink or in some cases even drive, can manage to think clearly enough and make a logical enough decision to commit a crime as outrageous as murder, and then be considered adult enough to know what they were getting into? Compitent enough to vote = no, compitent enough to die = yeah. Gotta love it. It was seriously disturbing. I understand that murder is serious...I'm not stupid. But I know that *I* have changed a whole lot since freshman year of COLLEGE, not to mention since my sophomore year of high school when I was 16. Just because someone was stupid enough to commit, or in some of the cases in the video to just BE AT THE SCENE (yeah, dont even get me started on that one, I was appalled), does not mean that their mentality will be the same in one year, much less multiple years. It is a dilemma, because how DO you deal with someone who could potentially kill again? Locking them up really just makes the situation in the jails worse, not to mention treating people like animals doesn't seem right, but how much faith can you put in someone who has killed? I've had people that I've known for years turn out to be someone completely different than I thought, so how do you trust someone who you don't know at all with something as important as a human life? It does present a problem, but, if nothing else, I know that if *I* were killed by someone, I would never want them killed on my behalf.

AND ANOTHER THING! Since 1976 there have been 877 executions, and do you KNOW how many of those have been in Texas ALONE? 310!! I am disgusted and can't believe I am from that state (and that's without all the negative publicity it gets from Bush...both of them). The next highest number of executions in the good 'ol USofA is Virginia, which doesn't even compete with its measley 89 executions since 1976. Why is it that Texas is apparently full of a) murderers and b) people who have such animosity in them that they feel the need to murder the murderers? Ok, clearly I'm exaggerating with this "full of" wording, but really, studies have been done that show that the death penalty is not proven to deter murder (want me to cite things? ok, fine: Sorenson et al (1999) "Examining the Effect of Executions on Murder in Texas"), so why do ANY of the states keep the death penalty? I mean, should the aim in general not be to deter more murders first and foremost? And clearly the death penalty is not proven to do that. So what does it do? I mean, with the actually small number of executions compared to the number of people in jail in general, its not like its keeping the number of people in prisions lower. So what? It makes the people in power look like they have MORE power? Yeah, basically. And what does that say? Does our goverment have to use murder to keep their status as powerful? Hm, ok, switch gears, that's too big of a subject to tackle at the moment, cause then you get into war and...yeah, not tackling that now.

In summation, it seems that the only people who are for the death penalty are either scared or angry, and I don't think either emotional status is logical enough to make decisions about whether someone should live or die...oh, but apparently it is logical enough, because those poor kids in that video were stupid, young, scared, and/or angry, and they're apparently logical enough to kill and then BE KILLED for their murders (and just for the record, I hardly see people who support the death penalty FACING the death penalty).

Next time on "What Rant Does Mary Have Now?": apathy, button-pushers, and Mary's thoughts on the subjects.