Can You Say Stupid?

I was channel surfing earlier and that idiot Glenn Beck was on FIXED NOISE in his grandma jeans and his little red sweater, standing in front of two blackboards with his little focus group seated before him.
I stopped for a minute to listen to what he had to say, and surprisingly I learned two things. First, he isn't talking about anything. He makes no sense. Second, he's dumber than a box of rocks. He has no sense!
The guy is a high school graduate who is making twenty-three million dollars a year according to wikipedia, okay maybe not the best source, but we can check those numbers. How is it that we've come to a place in our national discourse where some uneducated yokel is fomenting a revolution against the duly elected government of the United States?
If he were telling the truth. If he was seriously informed. Hell, if he could just stay on the same thought until completion, I believe in his right to speak his mind. But I think old Glenn skates on some pretty thin ice when it comes to the facts. He played a couple of clips of President Obama speaking to audiences recently. Beck's comments on these clips totally distorted the President's words and the intention behind the message.
It wouldn't matter so much, but there are so many Americans today who only get information from one skewed source. Right or Left, no one should only have one source of information. The fact that there are people intentionally misleading America to fear and hate it's government is not a good thing.
Glenn Beck has an agenda...make money for Glenn Beck. He has a very comfortable life behind the gates of his Connecticut property. So what if he has to stir up a little hatred and violence to sell more books and tickets to his events. What does he have to lose?
The answer is the same for Glenn as it is for all of us. A republic depends upon the willingness of its citizens to act for the common good. Aristotle's concept of virtue must be at work. Let's take a look around at who's interested in the common good. Is it Congress with their 17% approval rating and their new First Amendment freedom to accept contributions from Corporate citizens? Is it FOX NEWS playing fast and loose with the truth? Is it that quitter Sarah Palin, who will even stand behind John McCain seventeen months later, if it will keep her basking in the glow of conservative adoration? Is it the states' legislatures that are dismantling public education by refusing to fund our schools? Is it the State Board of Education of Texas who want publishers to alter the truth of history, so our kids don't have to be troubled with a national memory that doesn't mesh with the Board's narrow viewpoint?
We all have a great deal to lose, if we don't snap out of this orgy of fear and hatred. I was driving behind a Lexus SUV today on the main street of my upper middle class planned community. There were two bumper stickers: No Child Left a Dime and A government big enough to give you everything you need is big enough to take everything you've got.
The person driving that car has plenty of everything America has to offer, as does Glenn Beck. How has all the plenty made them so angry and meanspirited?

Okay, I'm Pissed!

I went to the doctor last Wednesday, a new one. She turned out to be a character, with attitude, but that's beside the point. Health care really does need reform, then perhaps one could find a general practitioner with a personality.
First things first, we had to record my height and weight. Funny thing. They will take my word that I'm 5'8" tall, but they are always going to make you step up on that scale.
I knew it was bad, there are mirrors in this house. I tried to wear last year's prom dress to my niece's wedding last weekend. I know I'm fat! But dear God, I never imagined that number...woo. The nurse couldn't move that little gizmo over much further.
Look out Jenny Craig. I am now convinced that I can and will lose weight. Forty-six pounds will just about get it. My God, that's a second grader.
The battle is already joined. I've been so disciplined since Wednesday, I've even surprised myself. I am not eating between meals. I haven't had any sweets. I haven't had anything except nutritious meals since Wednesday. Rotisserie turkey breast is delicious and adaptable. I have vegetables and fruit and don't forget the albacore tuna packed in water.
So far my self-loathing is keeping me from thinking about sweets, and there is a package of Reese's peanut butter Easter eggs in the kitchen. But they stay in the kitchen this year, and not on my ass.
One day at a time, one pound a week, drink more water, and get moving. This is my mantra. When June rolls around and I hit my sixties, I intend for there to be less of me to love.