life: January 2008 Archives

I live on a farm. That means I have animals. Animals need water. This isn't so bad in the summer, when outdoor plumbing works, but in the winter it means buckets. Lots of buckets. At least 5 buckets of water a day, carried from the kitchen sink either to: the donkeys, through a door, up a narrow set of stairs, through another door, across the barn, and through a stall door; the sheep, who get their water in a pasture that is accessed through the donkey stall, after hoisting the bucket up and over the electric fence (cautiously) or through another gate; the chickens, who live through the first door, out the back door of the barn, and across the yard to the coop.

We went away to Boston for the weekend. We had fun, but more importantly, we didn't carry a single bucket.

Am I talking about terrorists? Nope. I'm talking electoral campaigns, not military ones. Presidential campaigns, to be precise. Our own.

I'm not a political activist, but it occurs to me that we are under attack — not by terrorists, or the insurance companies, or Lead Paint Barbie, but by our own presidential candidates. Consider the word "freedom." As you ponder what it means to be free, let your thoughts wander over to words like "privacy." We have laws to protect both of these highly subjective things, but there is one very important loophole that is currently being exploited, and it pisses me off. I'm talking about the national do-not-call list, which aims to protect our right to have dinner without being called by some jerk salesperson. It's a nice law that protect us from the frustration known as Dinus Interuptus, and it was put in place by our beloved politicians, because they love us and have our best interests held close to their hearts. Oh - except they're exempt, themselves. And this election season, they are abusing that exemption.

Thank the powers that I am not a registered independent: if I were, I would be receiving calls from both parties candidates. I'm currently only a one-party guy, and I'm getting (no shit) about 3 calls on average every single freaking night. I got one on New Years Eve, and that particular candidate is lucky that I was so drunk I hit "end" instead of "call" because I was fueled by alcohol into giving 'em a piece of my mind! (It was New Years, after all)

Ranting aside, how can we trust any candidate when they are all deliberately doing something that they know we disapprove of? If people wanted to be called at home, the Do Not Call registry would never have been created. If a candidate deliberately pokes us in the eye over and over again, how could they possible want to fight on my behalf in the context of [taxes, education, foreign policy, health care]? I mean, these people obviously live in a very different world than we do, or they'd leave us alone. And they obviously don't care.

... I wonder what real estate prices in New Zealand are like?