War looks better on a big screen

The Reports on CNN today, as usual, did not bring good news. No fuzzy little puppy dogs, no world peace in the near future. I have a lot of television viewing time at work since I have nothing else to do. When I'm downstairs there is a nice 50 something inch plasma screen mounted just across from my desk. During the day I just kind of glance every now and then since I'm not a huge fan of the "drill the same story into your head 20 times for an hour" type of news just to get the daily headlines. Today I just happened to catch the video of Ayman al-Zawahiri asking all Muslims to join and support the Holy War against Israel. I just have to ask- When is all this crap going to stop? I honestly don't understand why religions feel the need to fight each other over who's right and which religion is the one true religion. I can't say that I am the most religious person that you'll meet, but I do have faith. I tend to look at religion from more of an outsider's prospective. It's not that I feel like an outsider, I just think that it's easier to learn about something and make a comparison of things if you don't let your vision get clouded by your own feelings. I feel like we all come from the same family, Abraham is father to all Jews, Christians and Muslims. As you can read here or here. Anyhoot, We have the same basic principals. We follow the same golden rule. It just doesn't seem like we should be at war with one another all the time, we have so much common ground. Obviously we have been at these Holy Wars for thousands of years and it would be foolish of me to think I could even come near to having a key to possibly coming up with part of the solution to even the most minor issues. Is the fight between Jews, Christians and Muslims a global case of sibling rivalry? Maybe, but it all feels like it's gotten so out of hand. I met this young Muslim guy through a friend that went to college with him. He was a very intelligent all around nice guy. We were discussing the practices of Islam (since we, as Westerners really don't know too much about it) and why Muslims hate Westerners. He then explained to us, in a very patient way, that Jihad is important in Islam and held high by each Muslim. Most of us relate Jihad to Holy War. Not so, Jihad is the spiritual, psychological and physical effort exerted by Muslims to be closer to God and thus achieve a just and harmonious society. Jihad literally means "striving" or "struggle" and is shorthand for Jihad fi Sabeel Allah (struggle for God's cause). He told us that many involved in this particular "Jihad" were young men, many of which are students. In Islamic nations something of this magnitude, something that they believe to be their duty to God- is the experience of a life time. Nothing can measure up to these acts for them. It'sva very generalized view that all Muslims hate all Americans. I hope that others understand this, it's important to be tolerant of others if you expect them to be tolerant of you. Maybe we as Americans spend too much time focusing on the fact that other nations (not just Islamic) view us in poor light, and not enough on being tolerant of them and working on bettering ourselves as a nation. Then again, I'm just one girl with a little blog that nobody reads.... What do I know. Nothing. I might not know anything about anything, but at least I TRY to educate myself about others. I try to treat people with respect not because they share my beliefs and values or because they are the same skin color as me- I treat them with respect because they are human beings and they deserve no less.

For more information on any religion or just information on religious tolerence in general visit this site.
See guardian UK for more of the definitions used here.

But I Thought We Were Friends, Damn it!

I was looking at some stupid videos today on YouTube, when I came across a video of 3 Iraqis being monitored through night vision. I began reading the comments left for this video and they made me feel so cut off! It was like someone throwing a bucket of “anti-American” red paint all over me. Just a couple of examples: (Not edited)

“Yeah don't forget Canada,we fucking hate America, we burned the whitehouse down before and we can do it again,lol America ain't that great, Russia alone can waste America. The whole world against America would be a sinch, just send every nuke to America, what is America going to do? lol they they won't know who to nuke first. Who is America going to nuke? Canada. lol...yeah I'd like to see that.lol “

“ Americans seem to buy their own bullshit so much that they think they are saving the world against terrorism, when in fact they are the terrorists. Invading countries for oil, destroying the environment, exploiting the worlds resources and not too mention just running around being by far the fattest people on Earth, I mean for fuck sake how many cheese burgers is enough haha. We could save the food shortage if we just sent all the obese Americans to Africa hahahah. “

It’s like when you walk into a room where everyone has been talking about you, and you know it. That feeling of being completely alone and vulnerable sets in. I expect things like that from the French and Italians, but Canadians? Brits? Germans? It wasn’t just these few comments on this one site either, I googled European anti-American and found site upon site about it. One can’t help but to feel a little betrayed. I had to remind myself that they hate America for what its doing and not who it is, I felt a little better. My family all came from England and has lived in America since the early 1600s. They fought in the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Mexican War… They helped shape this country, forgive me for having a little pride in the fact that I’m American. I feel like other countries just look at us as dumb Americans that blindly support its leader, who can’t see what’s going on right in front of them. That’s such a generalized view, one that doesn’t, or at least, I hope doesn’t reflect me. We’re one of the youngest modern countries in the world; we’re only 230 years old. Compare that to the majority of Europe and we’re teenagers. We’re still trying to figure things out. Europe has been no stranger to mistakes either… especially Eastern Europe. It happens; we’re just trying to get through this like everything else. I guess no one else seems to have noticed that Bush’s approval rating is around 46%... and falling. Obviously most of us aren’t supporting the oaf. Most of us don’t support the war but we support our troops- maybe that’s seen to others as supporting the war... I don’t think it is. Obviously I can’t speak for everyone and there are those that strongly support the war and all that jazz, but I just can’t defend a war that no one has said what it’s REALLY all about. We are fed a bit-o-propaganda here and there but I think most of us are smarter than that. I think that the majority of us are waiting for the 2008 elections so we can try to mend it. I personally feel a little misled about the war in the first place but now we’re there and we have to try to stabilize what we ripped apart. There are those that will say “But there are terrorists there, they are killing our soldiers! You’re just un-American!” But that’s not why we went in; we went in because “Saddam had WMD!
Honestly I can’t really say I don’t support it or I do support it, I don’t have enough information as a regular citizen to clearly make a true black and white decision. The point is- We aren’t all being blindly led down the road with American Flags Duct taped to our hands while singing the national anthem in support of the president. Now I’m rambling and sound like an idiot. But here’s some Rock, Paper, Saddam for your entertainment!

Girl fight via Text Message

Today was supposed to be a fun day, a nice, easy going and lazy day. I took off of work today because I felt like it and was going to sleep in and clean house a little. Hillary called and woke me up at about 9, no biggy- I probably shouldn't sleep longer than that anyways. I cleaned the kitchen a little and Hillary came over. We took a field trip to the liquor store to buy some vodka and 99 bananas for our jell-o shots for Katie's 23rd bday. Hillary, Katie, Genesis, Dawn, Lacie and I planned on getting together at Lacie's house to get girlie drunk and all the usual stupid things. Hillary called Lacie to make sure we were still on even though we've just talked to her about it day before yesterday. Lacie said she forgot all about it. She and Don had made other plans. I don't believe she forgot for a second. She does this shit all the time, makes plans and then "forgets" or backs out at the last moment- she even lies to get out of things when all she has to do is say it. At this point I'm disappointed, and kind of miffed. Then, Lacie sends a text msg.

Lacie: Are you mad at me? I forgot about her birthday. We are supposed to be going to his mother's house.
Me: Obviously I'm not happy. It wasn't so much about her bday as it was all of us getting together. It all seems just a little ironic.
Lacie: Sorry I really forgot. Please don't be mad.
Me: You always forget about things like that.
Lacie: What else have I forgot about? (gee, I don't know, like Hillary's birthday- )
Me: you ALWAYS seem to "forget" about plans we make or back out at the last minute. It's even more ironic that you're going to see a person you NEVER go visit this particular weekend.
Lacie: I have been to his mom's house many times. His niece is having problems. Name one that I forgot about. I have a family and a kid. I can't drop everything every time. (Now I'm livid. She uses this family excuse everytime. She doesn't have a family. She has a boyfriend that pimps her out on myspace looking for chicks for her to sleep with and film. Her kid spends more time at her mom's house then theirs.)
Me: Don't fucking act like I'm always putting you out! After everything I've done for you and I ask you one thing. Fuck it, Just forget about it.
Lacie: That's fucked Steph. Just because I forgot about Katie's bday you say something like that. I thought we were better friends than that. (Did she not read what I said about it NOT being about the bday?!?)
Me: You don't get it. It's not about her bday and you're the one that acted like I was asking the world of you.
Lacie: How is that? I said I was sorry. I didn't mean to forget. I have always appreciated everything you have done for me. But you throw it in my face now.
Me: I wasn't throwing it in your face, I was making a point that we hardly ever ask anything of you and you're acting like we constantly do and we put you out.
Lacie: You don't ask me to do anything and I don't act like you do. You get mad when my schedule doesn't your plans. said I was sorry. What else can I say? (Yes you fucking do act like that- no, I rearrange my schedule for you constantly. You could say "I'm sorry I'm such a flake and constantly do these kinds of things and even go as far as lying about my kid to get out of things so I can go to the strip club with Don, which makes you not believe a word I say)
Me: We were trying to make it convenient for you in the first place. Let me set something straight- When I said things I've done for you I wasn't talking material. I do those things because I want to and I'd do them again in a heartbeat. We always attend your functions and that's okay. It's when you commit to things and then back out. Just forget about it though, I know you're sorry. (Lacie, Genesis and Dawn live together. Lacie is almost 22 and still doesn't know how to drive, it's just easier doing it there than anything else. We always go to her son's bday parties and her family funerals and all that shit she asks us to do)

The thing is- we've known Lacie since we were 12. We always make all of the effort in our friendship with Lacie. That's just how it is, I never expected anything out of her. I just got to the point where I couldn't do it anymore. I was trying to make it easy for her by doing it over there so she didn't have to find a ride, a baby sitter and get don to come pick her up. Plus Dawn and Gen are already there. If she didn't want to do it there that's fine, that's all she had to say when we talked about it two weeks ago, last Saturday and Sunday, when Hillary called two days ago and when I sent her a text two days ago asking about it. Not a fucking word until the day before. I really don't know if I should believe her not, My head tells me not to, but my other side tells me to forget about it. I don't know what to do, honestly. Hillary just called her and told me she was very upset and never wanted to talk to me again. I feel the same way right now. When Lacie asked her what she had flaked out Hillary just made her "I know but I'm not going to say anything to upset you" sound. I was like "Thanks Hillary, now I just look like a dick and I'm pulling it all out of thin air." Her retort was "Well she was on the verge of crying." When just a few hours ago Hillary said that she thinks she's done with Lacie. Who knows, I guess I'll either just have to see how it plays out or suck it up and apologize when I don't think I'm in the wrong.

There’s been quite a stir here at work today. Someone has been stealing wallets right under our noses. Yesterday and today 7 wallets have gone missing, and they can’t figure out who is doing it. This isn’t a building that you can just walk right into and tour the floors. This is a secure building- I would think it would be quite difficult to pull something as simple as a wallet theft off. When someone walks in they are faced with three security guards and which ever one of the three of us is sitting here at reception. There are no offices on the first floor and you have to walk by reception or security to get on to the elevators to go up to the 8 floors above. If you can do that without being noticed you’ll just be stuck in the elevator lobbies on the floors because the doors are locked and you can’t get in without a security badge. Every time you swipe your badge for access it’s logged and stored. This place has more cameras than I can even count—so how it this happening? It’s happened to women working mostly in the international group but the most shocking is they stole a girl (we’ll call her) Ava’s wallet. She is the President of international’s admin. She works within the President’s office, like an office within an office. That’s brave. It’s been nothing but slamming doors and muffled frustration all day in the facilities group. Hopefully they’ll catch who is doing it. I finally got a key to my cabinets today so that I could lock my purse inside of it. Put my purse in, turned the key – nothing. The lock is busted, so I had to put in a work order to get the lock fixed, so for the mean time I’m just trying to hide it. I would hate to think that someone that actually works for us is doing it but obviously that’s probably who it is considering the tight security.
Hillary has to be out of her grandmother’s house by the 1st of August. Her family went crazy on her again, things got blown out of proportion and now it’s been decided it’s better if Hillary moves out. It was over something so incredibly stupid! Hillary was trying to take the new guy she’s seeing back to his house when they arrived he discovered that he was locked out. He called his roommate to find out when he’d be back. It wouldn’t be for another hour or so and since it was about 100 degrees out Hillary decided it was too hot to leave him there waiting and took him back to her house to wait. Hillary called her grandma to tell her and left her a voice mail. Luckily her uncle was at the house to he could be the “house guardian” a be witness to the fact that there was nothing going on and that the guy wasn’t stealing the worthless crap out of grandma’s house to go buy drugs that the guy didn’t even do. Her uncle leaves. By now grandma has called every member of the family she can to get this “punk kid” out of her house since she’s not there. She’s never even met the guy. As Hillary and said punk kid were leaving to go back to his house her aunts show up. Connie, a rather rude and obnoxious 911 dispatch supervisor with a glass eye, goes up to Hillary’s car and starts beating on the window for her to get her ass out of the car and blah blah blah. The guy was inside using the bathroom at this moment so Connie and her sister Becky go inside and start pounding on the bathroom door for him to come out and show her his ID so she can run it. Connie then proceeds to try to fight Hillary (this is a 40 something woman trying to grab a hold of a 21 year old’s hair!) in the front yard. How white trash is that? She then starts yelling about “how dare you disrespect my mother’s house, if anything is missing out of here…” The whole family thinks that all Hillary does is party, sleep around, smoke crack and worship Satan. Yes, Hillary does have slut tendencies and SOMETIMES drinks too much, but for the most part all she does is work and hang out with her daughter. I hate her family. I think I can say that honestly from being around them for almost 10 years and watching the things they put her through (and some that she put them through) like having her committed when we were 13. When we were 13 we hadn’t done anything besides stay out a little past curfew. They told the hospital that she was suicidal and taking drugs and shit. A complete lie. It really fucked her up. They’ve really fucked her up.
In good news- I bought a new laptop, it rocks.

If This Is Sight, I'd Rather Be Blind

I'm in such a "blah" mood today! I really have nothing to say and am simply updating for the sake of updating. I'm working on my applications for the Daughters of The American Revolution, the United States Daughters of 1812, and the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. I had ancestors that fought in all of these wars and I think it would be quite nice if years from now my kids can say they are apart of something like that. I've feel so old lately... all I do is scrapbook and ask Katie if we can go play bingo! I need to find a life.

Eugenics, anyone?

Saturday nights I was spending some quality time with 3 of my best friends. Somehow the topic of genocide came up and I was amazed that my friends had no clue that genocide was not a one time thing known as the holocaust. They had no idea that the world has a long dark history of genocide and that it’s still going on today, right as we speak. I’ve always been interested in genocide, more from the perpetrators point of view, rather than the victims. I guess it’s because I don’t understand how people can treat others in such a way and if I look at it from their prospective, it might shed some light. It never does, the people who mastermind these atrocities are perverse beings that cannot even be called human. It’s not something people like to talk about or even acknowledge its existence, but its here, it’s now and it doesn’t go away by itself. There have been genocides that happened a hundred years ago that countries and their governments are refusing to recognize.
The Genocide Convention came to action in 1951 following an abundance of genocides across the globe, some of those are:
The German Southwest Africa 1904-1908 Genocide of Hereros
Ottoman Turkey 1915-1923 Genocide of Armenians & Assyrians
USSR 1932-1934 Soviet Genocide/Famine in Ukraine (Holodomor)
Nazi Occupied Europe 1941-1945 Genocide of Jews (Shoan/Holocaust)
Nazi Occupied Europe 1941-1945 Genocide of Roma-Sinti (Parajmos)
After WWII the world vowed “NEVER AGAIN”. Never again would we allow such atrocities inflicted on the 6 million Jews, and the estimated 5.5 million non-Jews, including hundreds of thousands of Romani (Gypsies), Polish nationals, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, political criminals and others, that were systematically murdered.
Twenty years after the convention a new wave of hatred began. Twenty years after we swore to one another that no other living person would ever have to witness or endure murder on such a large, systematic scale again- it happened.
East Pakistan 1971: East Bengal Genocide
Burundi 1972: Selective Genocide of Hutus.
Cambodia 1975-1979: Khumer Rouse “Killing Fields” and Genocide
Guatemala 1981-1983: Maya Highlands Genocide
Iraq 1987-1988: Anfal campaign in Kurdistan (Kurd Genocide)
Bosnia 1992-1995: Serb “Entickno Ciscenje” Genocide of Bosnian Muslims
Rwanda 1994: Azuku “Hutu Power” Genocide of Tutsis
Right now, while we enjoy our generally peaceful lives, Darfur, Sudan’s land is soaking in blood. Since the Bush administration first recognized the problem more than 250,000 people have died. A militant group call the Janjaweed aim to rid the region of its native African people and replace them with Arab Herders.
A prominent group called GenocideWatch.org is now saying that genocide is becoming a very real threat in places such as Chad (spreading from Sudan), Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Burma and Uzbekistan. It makes no sense to me what is so undesirable about these people that would lead these people to want to exterminate them like pests.
For most Americans issues like this seem so far away, so out of reach. We may not be as innocent as most think. Most probably never heard about the American corporate philanthropies launched a national campaign of ethnic cleansing in the United States, helped found and fund the Nazi eugenics of Hitler and Mengele — and then created the modern movement of "human genetics." Maybe you should educate yourself: http://www.waragainsttheweak.com/

How May I Direct Your Call?

It’s Friday! I was laying in my bed this morning at 7:45 knowing I should have gotten up about an hour before, I was just so warm and comfy that I couldn’t bring myself to push the covers back and prepare for war. I mean… get dressed for work. Fridays used to be my favorite day, but not anymore. We here at Yum are on summer hours. Just what are summer hours, you ask? For most here it’s a wonderful thing that happens between June and August were you either go home at 1PM or 3PM on Fridays. I know- it sounds great! Not for poor little me, I’m stuck here alone until 5. Yeah, I know, I complain too much.
Every single person that has walked past in the last 15 minutes has stared at me. I’d like to think that it is because of my devastating good looks, but sadly, I know it’s only because they are wondering what the hell the large TV camera is pointed at me. The Facilities dept. is doing an informative video or two on the building and all the greatness that is YUM. Most new visitors are amazed when they come to find out that we take up the ENTIRE building. Its 9 floors that house the Pizza Hut chaos. We have the “secret” labs that they develop new pizzas in (yes, I’ve tried some), the paperwork hell that is Legal, grunts, the executives (or Leadership Team- in PH speak), and the spoiled brats that are International. That all comes down to about 900 employees. We have our own little city here. Need some Coffee? Try the Starbucks on 1. Spilled your coffee on your shirt? Take it to the drycleaners or just buy a new one at the company store. Grab lunch at either Taco BHell, KFC, PH, or whatever. Then take a ride on the company jet. This is the crap that’s been shoved down my throat for the last week. I think they just put all the crap in the building so we won’t have an excuse to leave. Leave and never come back….. Oh, sorry, fantasizing again. I do like my job, don’t get me wrong. It’s just a dream of mine to not HAVE to work. Do it because I like it. I know--- never gonna happen. I’ll always need the money for something. Any hoot… Have a great Friday!