The Old Bait and Switch

I was watching Real Time w/Bill Maher last night. His round table guests were a woman (conservative/republican), Tavis Smiley and John Heilemann.  Bill brought up two discussion points last night; do Arabs/Muslims treat their women better than westerners and where is Obama the democrat? They were two good questions.  Smiley and Maher came down on different sides last night.

Bill said that Arab/muslim men treat their women like shit.  He said that they can't vote, drive, get a divorce, etc. Tavis came back with women are treated like shit here too.  Over the years, there have been several interviews with Arab/muslim women here and in the Middle East.  As with most things, women have differing views.  Some women don't like the restrictions placed on them so they leave their countries and come here. They renounce their faith and stop practicing their customs.  On the other hand, some of these women come here keep their faith and continue practicing their customs.  Some have even wondered why we believe they're unhappy.  They don't mind practicing Islam and they don't mind covering their hair and bodies.  Bill used examples of the cruelty perpetrated against women by rural religious chiefs.  None of the examples he used were perpetrated by men in the cities.  (Unless you count the guy in New York who killed his wife.) But, if we go by the images we're seeing of the protests in the Middle East, the women there are standing along side the men.  If being a woman in the Middle East was as bad as we think, they wouldn't be there.

Tavis believes that those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. He's right.  Women in this country are treated like shit.  If we had it better than Arabs/muslims, porn wouldn't be one the biggest businesses in the world. The human trafficking/prostitution business wouldn't be booming. Women are being raped and murdered here at an alarming rate and for some reason, these crimes are not being solved.  If it wasn't for Nancy Grace, I wouldn't know that women are disappearing never to be seen again. Women don't make as much money as men, the justice system, whether criminal or civil, gets a big fat "F", and let's not mention women's health.  So, maybe Arab women have to be covered from head to toe, but being able to wear a bikini on the beach doesn't mean I'm better off.

Bill wanted to know why Obama hadn't been more forceful in his defense of the union workers in Wisconsin. Heilemann wasn't surprised.  He doesn't believe that Obama is a democrat.  He believes that all of his policies show him to be republican.  That he's too buddy buddy with wall street to be anything other than a republican. Tavis brought up whether this was the change that people voted for.  I agree with both.

Obama is a republican.  Obama and Clinton ran on the same platform. Edwards was more progressive. Because all the prior presidents were white, I voted for Obama.  (I would have voted for Edwards if Obama had dropped out.) It's been a big letdown.  He said that he'd close Guantanamo, get rid of the Bush tax cuts, reform wall street, make health care affordable, start a new dialogue with the rest of the world, bring the troops home, improve education, do something about the foreclosure crisis.  Another thing that bothers me, is that ninety percent (probably closer to ninety nine percent) of his appointees are white.  But, the worst thing that Obama has done, has come down on the side of prosecutors in the Terry Harrington and Curtis McGhee case that was in front of the Supreme Court.  Mr. Harrington and Curtis McGhee were wrongfully convicted for murder because the prosecutors fabricated evidence.  Prosecutors are sworn to uphold the laws of the United States. Obama  believes that it's okay for prosecutors to make shit up in order to get convictions and not be held liable.  They shouldn't go to jail/prison for violating the constitutional rights of American citizens. His reasoning is that if they're held responsible for their actions, then it'll prevent them from aggressively going after criminals. I'm black.  My son is black.  Most of the wrongfully convicted are black.  My son could be Terry Harrington or Curtis McGhee.

Obama is an average politician.  He made promises and didn't deliver.  This isn't change.  This is more of the same.

Do I Know You?

We were looking at Real Housewives of Atlanta the other day.  There is an issue of whether Nene and Phaedra know each other.  Apparently, they grew up in Athens, GA.  In small towns, it's common for people to "know of" each other than to actually "know" each other.  Nene said that she and Phaedra were/are not friends. They didn't hang out with each other, go to school together, or work together.  Phaedra's comeback was, "why did you call me if you don't know me?"  Well, if I were trying to do something and someone I was  "familiar" with could help me accomplish my goal, why wouldn't I call them?  So, in all the time that Phaedra and Nene's been in Atlanta, the only contact between them was a phone call over ten years ago?  Does a phone call mean you know someone?  If you have no contact with someone, is it fair to say that you don't know them?  Or, if you can point out a person on the street that you're familiar with, do you know them?

This brings me to my dilemma.  For all intents and purposes, my father left home the day he married my mother.  He spent my childhood years going back and forth to prison.  He made appearances in my life every two or three years until my mother decided that she'd had enough.  I was fifteen by then.  As we were discussing RHOA, I used my relationship with my father to explain what Nene was saying.  I may know my father by sight, but I don't know him.  I had to explain what I "know" about my father compared to her.  I know my mothers family.  We see each other two maybe three times per year.  I know that she doesn't like chocolate.  I know where she grew up, who some of her friends are, when she graduated from high school, her relationship with her family members.  I know she was a majorette and played the oboe in high school. (I've seen her yearbook picture.)  I know that she doesn't have a favorite food or color.  I know why she doesn't have a perm.   She loves old school blues from Bessie Smith to Muddy Waters.  My mother doesn't agree.  She said that my father was around enough and I was old enough to have memories of him.

I do have memories of my father.   I readily admit that I know what he looks like.  I told her that I don't know of my father.  I know nothing about him.  She told me the little that I know about him.  Which is nothing.  If my life depended on it, I wouldn't be able to say anything good or bad about him.  Your kids should be able to say that my dad is lame.  He likes bell bottom pants and butterfly collars.  Or, "you should see his yearbook picture".  Or he graduated from high school in ____...Or, my dad's favorite color is...Or his first girlfriend's name was...Or _____ gave him his first kiss...Or his first bike was a...I've never wished him happy birthday, Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, or happy Valentine's Day.  I think that's a shame.

Here's my point.  I recognize the lady who lives next door.  But, I don't know her.

I Hate People Who Complain About Child Support

I'm so sick of hearing grown men and women complain about child support. The simple thing for these people to do would be to: stay with the other parent until the children are no longer minors or DO NOT HAVE CHILDREN!!

I say this because I worked for the child support agency in Texas. You wouldn't believe the volume of calls and letters we received from deadbeats because they have to pay child support and/or that their arrears are so high. The reason most of theses assholes are on child support is because they ran when they were initially served and didn't appear in court to request DNA so they get default judgments against them. Some spent their young lives unemployed so when they do start to work later on, they're 10K+ in the hole. Some are intentionally unemployed (which is weird because it's against the law to not pay child support but not against the law to be unemployed) who live off men or women or other relatives. Some of these fools even hide paperwork from their significant others until it's too late to do anything about it. So now you have people who're 5+ years in arrears or are paying for kids who aren't theirs. I don't feel sorry for any of these sons of bitches.

There's nothing more pathetic than a grown man/woman whining about having to pay for the upkeep of their OWN damned kids. What's sickening is that these fools don't take responsibility for their own actions. The reason they're parents is because the father/mother told them they were on the pill; tricked them if you will. (Only parents 21 and under can use this excuse). This would be a valid argument if all heterosexuals were fathers/mothers. There are PLENTY of men/women in this country who're NOT parents. They're NOT parents by "THEIR" choice. They don't leave birth control up to the man/woman. I know that men/women don't believe that they're going to marry or have a future with every ma/woman they have sex with. So realizing this, why not protect yourself? Why not be honest with yourself and say, "I don't know how long I'm going to be with this person, so let me make sure that I don't bring another person into the world until I'm sure?" If that doesn't work. Remember the first thing the teachers say in sex ed. "There is a 50/50 chance that you'll be parents each and every time you have sex." SMMFH! Who's raising these muthafuckas?

There was an article in a paper here in Texas a few years ago. A woman had started an organization to keep women from "picking" fathers. "Picking" is when a woman who has had multiple partners picks the best among them to be her baby's father. Chances are this man is a working man who'll take care of the baby. In this case, the wife was upset that her husband was paying support for a baby that wasn't his. What this fool glossed over in her article, was that her husband got another woman pregnant while still married to her and he was hiding the support papers from her when he got them. She didn't know anything until the payments started coming out of his check. Years later, this lady's husband did a paternity test and found the baby wasn't his. So now, she's mad about all the money spent and is asking for a refund. ???????????? This lady needs to ask herself why she stayed with this asshole. That woman he cheated with wasn't the first and she wasn't the last. She should be asking her husband why he didn't come forward when he first got these papers. She's married to the worst sort of man; a liar, a cheat, and a coward. If anyone needs their ass kicked its hers for staying married to this jackass. All this could have been prevented if he'd just asked for a dna test.

There have been articles written recently where the author is requesting that the custodial parent provide an accounting of where the child support money is being spent. ??????? Ain't this some bullshit!!! First off, the custodial parent has to do more with less. Second, where the custodial parent was responsible for 50% of the kids everyday needs, now they're responsible for 100% because the non-custodial parent only sees the kids every other weekend or not at all. You want to know where the child support is going? Fuck you!!! But I'll tell you anyway where the child support is going. It's going to pay rent, food, electric, phone, car note, care insurance, gas, dental &vision insurance (they're not included in the child support order), daycare & after school (which is the equivalent of a house note which child support doesn't cover), clothes & shoes (they grow like weeds) and miscellaneous after school activities (sports and entertainment). I think all parties should prepare expense reports. That way the non-custodial parent can see what he gets a free-pass on and the custodial parent can see why he/she is going without.

I want everyone who don't want to pay child support to have a vasectomy or get their tubes tied. There. Problem solved.