Houston, We Have a Problem:

The Award-Winning Oil and Energy Documentary

http://www.houstonwehaveaproblemfilm.com/

This is a fantastic documentary that covers multiple points of view regarding the energy issue in the United States. Various people from the oil and alternative energy industries are interviewed, head honchos as well as the little guys, politicians and environmental activists. It includes a comprehensive history of the oil industry in America and what happened to it after the interference of OPEC. The film gives its viewers a better understanding of our situation today and what is being done in our quest for energy sustainability and independence.

I highly recommend watching this documentary before the upcoming election if you are still on the fence. The energy issue was an important topic in tonight's presidential debate. If you have made up your mind, watching this film will still give you some good insight and knowledge regarding one of the most important factors that determines our future in the modern world.

The Republican/Democrat Divorce

Here is an extreme email I recently received from a family member suggesting that the Democrats and Republicans in this country "divorce" or separate and divide up the country's land mass equally. It’s unbelievable that some people see things so simply. I love how liberals, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters are all conveniently lumped into the same category in this letter. Also notice how the person who is circulating this email is thrilled to discover that a young person and a student actually has something that they perceive as intelligent to say about politics. Read the following email copied from my inbox and imagine how things would really go down if this were to occur. Here are the terms stated in the email which some people apparently thought were amusing, ingenious and cut and dry:
 
 (None of the following words in blue are mine or reflect any of my views just to be clear.)

DIVORCE  AGREEMENT

THIS IS SO INCREDIBLY WELL PUT AND I CAN HARDLY BELIEVE IT'S BY A YOUNG PERSON, A STUDENT!!! WHATEVER HE RUNS FOR, I'LL VOTE FOR HIM.

Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters, et al:

We have stuck together since the late 1950's for the sake of the kids, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly, this relationship has clearly run its course.

Our two ideological sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is right for us all, so let's just end it on friendly terms. We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and go our own way.

Here is a model separation agreement:

--Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by landmass each taking a similar portion. That will be the difficult part, but I am sure our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy! Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate tastes.

--We don't like redistributive taxes so you can keep them.

--You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU.

--Since you hate guns and war, we'll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military.

--We'll take the nasty, smelly oil industry and you can go with wind, solar and bio-diesel.  

--You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O'Donnell. You are, however,  responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to move all three of them.

--We'll keep capitalism, greedy corporations, pharmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart and Wall Street.

--You can have your beloved lifelong welfare dwellers, food stamps, homeless, homeboys, hippies, druggies and illegal aliens.

--We'll keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, greedy CEO's and rednecks.

--We'll keep the Bibles and give you NBC and Hollywood .

--You can make nice with Iran and Palestine and we'll retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten us.

--You can have the peaceniks and war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we'll help provide them security.

--We'll keep our Judeo-Christian values.

--You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism, political correctness and Shirley McClain. You can also have the U.N. but we will no longer be paying the bill.

--We'll keep the SUV's, pickup trucks and over sized luxury cars. You can take every Subaru station wagon you can find.

--You can give everyone healthcare if you can find any practicing doctors.

--We'll continue to believe healthcare is a luxury and not a right. 

--We'll keep "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "The National Anthem."

--I'm sure you'll be happy to substitute "Imagine", "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing", "Kum Ba Ya" or "We Are the World". 

--We'll practice trickle down economics and you can continue to give trickle up poverty your best shot.

--Since it often so offends you, we'll keep our history, our name and our flag.

Would you agree to this?   If so, please pass it along to other like-minded liberal and conservative patriots and if you do not agree, just hit delete. In the spirit of friendly parting, I'll bet you answer which one of us will need whose help in 15 years.

Sincerely,
John  J. Wall
Law Student and an American

P.S. Also, please take Ted Turner, Sean Penn, Martin Sheen, Barbara Streisand, & Jane Fonda with you.
P.S.S.  And you won't have to press 1 for English when you call our country.

  

(WOW!)

Are You a Political Black Sheep?

"I'll love you no matter what, even if you grow up to be a damn liberal..."

As you may have noticed, American politics have become increasingly polarized. Why is it so hard for most to find a common middle ground? In the United States, our political background begins to take shape with our families at a very young age. I remember very clearly my father telling me when I was a little girl: "I'll love you no matter what, even if you grow up to be a damn liberal." As touching as that whole I'll love you no matter what spiel may have been, I couldn't help but wonder what a 'damn liberal' was and that they must be really horrible people.

I grew up listening to Rush Limbaugh and wondered why he was always so angry. My grandfathers on both sides of the family agreed with him vehemently while my grandmothers tried to turn the radio down insisting that they keep it quiet around the kids. I tried but without success to understand why my family made fun of people who were concerned about animals and the environment. Aren't they an important part of our lives? I also noticed that every time there was a Democrat in the White House the world was coming to an end and the Anti-Christ had come into power. We were all doomed...It got old after about the third time. 

Other doubts that formed in my mind included: Why is California the Land of Fruits and Nuts? Why is Massachusetts a "mass-of-two-shits"? Why is handy-cap parking "handy crap"? I recall an argument with my father when I tried to explain that the Israel-Palestine issue was more complicated than he made it out to be. I quoted a couple of interesting books I had read on the issue and his reply was, "Liberals write books, so you can't trust them." Yeah...you read that right.


Over time I came to realize that my family is pretty extreme and that there were other people out there who shared my doubts and my beliefs. (This took a while as I grew up in rural Texas.)  I came to understand what a "damn liberal" was and that I might in fact be one.  Over the years I met some rare but well-informed, moderate people on the fence. Unfortunately these people are often considered uninformed and others insist that they have to make up their minds.

To this day I am unable to discuss politics with my family because their reaction to any opposing view or attempt to reconcile is purely emotional and unchangeable. It's like listening to a broken record. Even though I may not agree with my family members, I understand why they are the way they are. Their beliefs are innate and remain unquestioned. They formed many years ago when my grandfather's father surely joked about "damn liberals" and everyone wanted in on the fun. They also relished in anything negative, however inaccurate it may have been, about the other side. Sadly, this is the way it goes with most families and friends, and that is why today we only have two choices for president every election, one of which is currently in office. If someone votes for another party or a candidate that is not the official party candidate, it is considered a wasted vote. We are only one person away from having no choices. More Americans must reconsider and pay more attention to the gray that exists between the black and white. 

Here is a list I put together of some negative things each party says about the other. They are all extreme and a good example of how adults can fight like children. How many of us are 100% any of the things listed below? If we can see that most of us fall somewhere in the middle, maybe we can have more choices again, better ideas and a more effective Congress.

Republican:
• wasteful (environmental)
• force religious beliefs
• war mongers
• only support the rich
• nationalist
• uneducated
• homophobic
• anti-government
• simple minded
• backwards hicks 
• against beliefs of forefathers

Democrat:
• wasteful (monetary)
• atheist/anti-Christian
• anti-defense
• socialist/Marxist
• anti-American
• dumb (lacking real life wisdom)
• anything goes
• let government control all
• extravagant
• hippies 
• against beliefs of forefathers

 

Family Life

I’m going to stop trying to move life and let life move me. That’s it! That’s what I’ve been struggling with all this time. Since my last life-altering change where I got angry with God and renounced a Christian way of life, I took too seriously the notion that I alone had complete control, that it was all up to me. Fate may not be in the hands of a Christian God, but it’s there in some shape or form. I guess I have to learn to go with the flow. But how? I have become so “cabezona” as my husband would say.

In the past most people, or most women have fought natural desires to be artists, professionals, etc, because they were supposed to have kids, be mothers and wives.

What if my natural desire is to be a mother and a wife, but I’ve fought against it all these years because now, in modern times, women are supposed to be “more” than that. And also my parents’ example of a marriage was nothing to be desired. I figured if that was marriage, who would want that?

This seems to be a popular problem in American society. We have a lot of f-ed up families here. We're also extremely obsessed with sex. Probably due to intimacy issues. I didn’t really see that until living in Mexico. I saw what a family could be. What a family should be. Because people of my parents’ generation up until now had horrible examples of family life, they all think that they don’t want it. Who would want all that negativity, hate and division? What we have now is not family life. How can we ever have healthy family life again if no one even knows what it is anymore?

Crispy Tacos

News flash! Crunchy taco shells do not exist in Mexico. I´ve searched high and low. Has anyone one out there ever come across one? Who invented these things anyway?

Border Issues

Fox News: Boy Killed by Border Patrol

The recent killing of a Mexican boy at the border by US authorities is a tragedy indeed. But, it disturbs me and saddens me that all the Mexican people are unaware, or are conveniently forgetting in this moment all the harsh treatment that Mexican autorities have inflicted upon immigrants at their border with Guatemala. It is the same, if not worse.
Here in Mexico this murder is being splashed all over the news with gory photos making the front pages. It embarasses me to see it, as I´m an American living here in Mexico City. It shames me, but at the same time it angers me that people here could even begin to adopt a self-righteous attitude. And to top it all off, this particular group of Mexicans who were at the border at the time of the incident were throwing rocks at the authorites. Were these people trying to help their fellow citizens who were engaging in an illegal activity (crossing the border), by throwing rocks at the heads of the very people who can arrest them for doing so. Why? And how can they complain about what happened while I´m very sure that if a Guatemalan were throwing rocks at the Mexican officials at the Guatemalan border, he or she would suffer a similar fate.
Central Americans crossing the southern Mexican border have faced various abuses at the hands of Mexican autorities including robbery of their legal documents and their only money, violent rapes to the point of hemmoraging, beatings, being detained without reason in prisons with very poor conditions, some are sold into slavery and thousands of them have just disappeared. The majority of them (of the disappeared) are surely dead. This data comes from CODEHUTAB-Comité de Derechos Humanos de Tabasco (Human Rights Committee of Tabasco).
http://www.codehutab.org.mx/violacionalosdh.html
Central Americans also face the same xenophobia upon entering Mexico that some Mexicans face in the US. The immigrants are suspected of being criminals, and some even think that they are diseased. They are also regulary taken advantage of as workers. They can be hired to work on a plantation for around 40 pesos per day and never receive their money. They also have to deal with being confronted by the horrible gangs in the area. I think the Mexican government has paid some attention to this and has worked on the situation since 2000 because they realized their blatant hypocrisy, but today there are still many deaths and many disappearances as a result of this border crossing. Actually it is said that it is more difficult to cross into Mexico than into the US. The difference is that in the US we have more control over the data. We know how many people die and who dies and how. At the southern border that Mexico shares with Central America, there is not near as much recorded data, especially by the central american countries.
The truth is that througout history many countries have faced this same problem. Whenever a situation in one country is clearly better than another, people come pouring out of the poorer country trying to gain entry into the next country where the grass in greener. It´s happened between Eastern and Western Europe, Venezuela and Colombia, South Africa and other African countries, PuertoRico and the Dominican Republic and pretty much anywhere the grass is greener on the other side. How do we solve these issues? Unfortunately no one has yet come up with a functional, humane solution. Is it possible? It´s not exactly humane to stop someone from trying to have a better life. The incidents that occur at borders around the world are awful. Just keep your eyes open and realize that the US government is not the only one that has this problem. This problem has occured throughout history around the world, and the problem persists around the world today. Maybe the US government just has more eyes on it than most...