Lets Be Self Indulgent and Talk About ME ME ME

As my friends, most of you know where I stand politically.  Ahem, if you don’t know, obviously you aren’t paying attention.  The same can be said about people who are politically either apathetic or supportive of the Bush administration’s policy of plunder, profit and purging dissent.  In short, I’m a bleeding heart liberal who’s angry that this country’s being highjacked by rightwing fascists.  I want my country back and I’m going to do something about it.

The simplest and perhaps most important thing I can do, other than voting, is to change my shopping habits. Call this "voting with your wallet" because I am using the power of my shopping dollar to reward the values I believe in.  That’s why I subscribe to BuyBlue.org, a progressive Web site that supports businesses that share my progressive values and ideals.

They believe in a triple bottom line: people, planet and profit. BuyBlue.org uses our power as consumers to vote with our wallets, supporting businesses that abide by sustainability, workers’ rights, environmental standards, and corporate transparency. At the same time, BuyBlue.org focuses sharply on businesses that violate the essential values of a sustainable, fair and profitable society through their policies and the politicians they support.

BuyBlue.org will become a powerful tool used by a community of millions. We will form strong coalitions with stockholders, shareholders, corporations, small businesses and communities which share our values to gain strength through numbers. We will influence the political landscape, stimulate economic growth among participating businesses and industries and use the American dollar as an incentive for corporate transparency and responsibility.

Be may this my soap box, but it is a soap box I want to use to promote progressive values and ideals. 

Send those greedy and immoral Republican bastards a clear message: you have the power to bring them down by taking away the one thing that drives them most: money. 

Did any of you watch last Sunday’s episode of Real Time with Bill Maher?  If you didn’t, you’d be interested to know that the devil’s spaun aka. Anne Coulter was on.  Has anyone thought that she looks like a tranny hooker?  I mean, she sounds like a man, spews venom like a typical right-wing nut job and exclaims like a tranny on tina. 

On that note, how the hell does she sleep at night? I watch her in amazement as she spews lie after lie about the so-called "left wing conspiracy" to demean everything our beloved President is working to achiece.  Ok, she’s clearly off her rockers.  Who in the world calls Bush "beloved"??? Other than his 60-year old cheerleader turned Supreme Court nominee Harry(iet) Miers….   

Apparently I’m not the only one who thinks so.

After seeing The Constant Gardener last night, I felt compelled to once again blab away on my oh-so-popular "anti-blog blog."  Being a movie buff and living with a genuine film snob, I have, over the years, developed a relatively sophisticated film sense.  Granted, this coming from same schmuck who once excitedly stated "this is the best movie ever," referring to Maid in Manhattan.  Such is the poof in me.

That being said, I do truly feel that watching the The Constant Gardener last night was one of most memorable movie experiences I have had in a long time.  Forget the fact that the lead characters played by Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz were great and the restrained chemistry they shared was electric, or that the uncompromising and hard-hitting directing of noted Brazilian director Fernando Meirrelles was superb. Or even the sumptuous cinematography of Cesar Charlone, who’s bold colors and accurate depictions of both the beauty of Kenya and its people as well as the gut wrenching poverty and desperation that plagues most of its people, clearly conveyed the director’s message. 

What shocked and impressed me most about The Constant Gardener was the message of the movie: corruption, nepotism and total greed aren’t limited to the Republican administration that currently rule over this country.  Most other so-called "civilized" Western nations are just the same, if not within their own borders and directed directly at their own people, at least when it comes to making a mighty buck at the expense of the downtrodden and disenfranchised in the third world.  The movie also made me take a long hard look at what I do and made me wonder the hell I was doing with my life…..  I peddle $600 a nigh rooms that few can afford, while in my personal life deride the very capitalist institutions that keep me fed, clothed and enjoying life. 

I suppose hypocrisy exists within all of us, no less within me.  Until I figure out how to eventually do something more worthwhile in life, I hope that people will at least go watch The Constant Gardener for inspiration. 

Movies mean different things to different people… I myself watch particular movies to satisfy a particular mood I may be in: romantic comedies when I’m being sappy (always,) horror or supernatural thrillers when I feel particularly adventurous (usually on Friday nights) and foreign movies when I yearn for a taste for the cosmopolitan (especially when it involves gratuitous sex and nudity.)  This movie was meant to be a thought provoker and a complete jolt to the senses….   If that’s the mood you’re in, The Constant Gardener is a definite must see.

Ok, If you’re wondering why the hell I created a blog, well, here’s the skinny.  Sarah was espousing the positives of blogging and I kept on ranting about how self indulgent it was.  She disagreed, especially to the part about how I thought blogs about one’s daily life was a total crock.  She argued that it often served as a motivator for writers, and I argued that it was a narcissistic attempt at creating a false sense of self importance.  Soon after that conversation, a light bulb went off in my head: why not create an anti-blog blog?  So, here it is.

I may not post daily, I may not even do one weekly.  I may, on the other hand, post something as I think up some more crap I hope no one will read.  So, read it, or don’t, it will be there from time to time.  I’ve kept it open to receiving responses from friends…. so be my guest and bitch back at me as you please. Just know that I’ll come out and bitch slap you if you say something I don’t like.

Here’s to the beginning of my Nepoleonic journey………