some thoughts on the world going to hell in a handbasket

i'll be the first person to admit that i'm not 100% sure what the bush doctrine is (although it wouldn't take me much to figure it out), but then i haven't been asked to be vice president.

no body likes mccain, and the ones who do, hate palin. then why am i so scared that they'll win? oh, i know! because our country is full of idiots! they voted for bush (i'd say twice, but is that really true?). enough said.

so, AIG is a goner. fannie mae and freddie mac are now controlled by the government. many many rich bastards are about to have to cancel that lease on their 5th bentley. quick! we need all you poor, overdrawn people to cough up more tax dollars so they don't have to sell their helicopters, too! won't somebody please think of the rich people??!?!?

i know i'm being short-sighted. i've busted my ass for the last 15 years getting educated and learning as much as i can about my particular job sector so i can make maybe $40k. forgive me for being bitter. i'm not rich enough to give ONE SHIT about those assholes on wallstreet. i'd happily give up my crappy condo to see ALL OF THEM go down. to see them in same place i am now. they made more in a week than i probably did in 6 months on the backs of poor people who just wanted a piece of the american dream... to own a house that they wouldn't have to answer to some slum lord. the people who made it possible for those people to get that loan have never had to think about those choices... live in section 8 or on the street. the hardest they think is where to go for their vacation: cabo or st. barts. fuck them. you greedy pigs deserve to go down. just like in 1929, you should have live hand to mouth and then the next time you get the option to leverage your bank account against someone else's livelihood that you will reconsider. you will have some morality. you will think, "that could be me." that's the real problem: no one thinks that it could ever be them on the other side of the desk.

now it's your turn.

some rain

i don't know if you've been watching the news, but us people in Chicago have been getting the remnants of Hurricane Ike. we've gotten about 8 inches of rain in the past 48 hours. we have had some flooding around here. i shall post some pictures to show you how much rain we've gotten.

This is Foster Avenue at Avers, where the Chicago River flows past.

Foster Avenue, blocked off due to the flooding.

Eugene Park on Foster Avenue.

Eugene Park. That thing peeking up from the water is the top of a park bench.

my thoughts on pro-life

in case you haven't figured it out, i'm pretty much a liberal. i was reading someone's blog and thinking about up coming presidential race and the abortion issue. mccain is pro-life, to the point that he wants to OVERTURN roe v. wade. his running mate is also pro-life. she also belongs to the NRA and hunts. here is my humble opinion:

pro-life shouldn't just be about an unborn child. if you are truly pro-life, you should also be anti-gun. you should be against the weapon of choice that kills innocent victims again and again and again. and these people are actual, viable people! they breathe on their own, walk, talk, eat, dress themselves. if these people were actually allowed to live, they could have been productive members of society. but it seems these so-called pro-lifers are almost always pro-gun. pro-second amendment. to the point that watching hundreds of people die every year in Chicago alone isn't enough for them to change to change their minds, on the abortion or gun issue. not enough to say, "you know, our argument really doesn't make a lot of sense."

so i read that woman's blog and remember her past-how she had to have a late-term abortion to save her life. it wasn't as if she was walking down the street one afternoon and said, "you know, these twins i'm pregnant with are really bringing me down. and man, it's just going to suck being a mom." she had busted her ass to get those boys inside of her, tried all she could to keep them. she wasn't the type of person that the pro-lifers think of when they think of people getting abortions. they think of the 19-year-old twice-over mother who can't be bothered using protection or keeping her legs closed. the one who didn't care enough to take precaution. didn't want the baby at all.

but you know what? that's the problem with the abortion issue. you can't make a law and then predict who is going to use it. you can't project your subjective opinions into other people's positions. roe v. wade isn't out there for pro-lifers. you don't want an abortion, i'm not making you have one. row v. wade is there for the purpose of having a choice. you already have 5 kids? fine, get an abortion. you were raped by your father? get an abortion. you got knocked up by your boyfriend who is 3 weeks out of rehab and you never wanted kids anyway? get an abortion. you're going to die if you don't have those twins RIGHT NOW? you get my point.

and to the pro-lifers out there: it's NEVER an easy decision. EVER. there is NO WOMAN out there who deliberately gets pregnant to HAVE AN ABORTION. you have created a life, by accident or by on purpose now you have chosen to terminate it for whatever reason. you want to see the saddest place in the whole world? go to a post-op room in an abortion clinic. every pro-lifer should volunteer there before they choose to open their mouths about women who get abortions. go talk to the woman whose 6 month fetus has trisomy-21. the woman whose preeclampsia is so bad she's having seizures. then get back to me on the black-and-white conservative view of the abortion issue.