Ch-ch-changes

Have I mentioned I've given up politics? If I haven't, well, I have. It was not an epiphany that just hit me 'side the head recently, but something that happened back in April when I was hanging out for a week in the allegedly happiest place on earth. It's amazing what one week free of internet and mostly free of news will do to your mind. It clarifies, cleanses, and all that good stuff. And when you come back from the detox, you find out people are still mad about the same stuff, still yelling about the same stuff, and no one has moved the ball down the field. And I realized that I spent a lot of time not moving the ball down the field as well.

I'm not sure how swearing off politics is going to help with the problem I just crystallized in last sentence of the above paragraph. I just know that my life is happier without reading who is saying what to whom, who hates on whom, and why the other side is so freakin' crazy/awful/terrible/hates America. I've unsubscribed from most of the political feeds on my Facebook page, have stopped reading politically orientated op-eds, and now skip the Sunday television gab fests that are usually nothing less than polite food fights.

I think the real thing that gets me about politics and why it's so easy to walk away -- every action has an opposite and equal reaction. For example: cut taxes, you cut revenues. Cut the budget and someone somewhere out there is going to suffer (but it's okay as long as it's someone else, not me -- hands off my government-run Medicare thankyouverymuch). End EPA regulations and sure businesses will have more cash flow, but let's watch the asthma and cancer rates go up at the same time. I can play this game all day and I know you can too.

No one talks about how to get America's kids educated so we can compete in a global marketplace, no one talks about funding research and development so we can be the innovative brains of the world again; do we not realize that the rest of the world has caught up in certain places and we're not competitive anymore? Instead, we talk about stupid things like whether gay people should be allowed to get married (um, yes) or forcing sonograms on women who want abortions (and who's going to take care of the kid when it gets here, you? Certainly not Uncle Sam). We spend all this time quibbling about other people's lives, not realizing that other countries (namely BRIC) are stealing our thunder. And dang it, I want our thunder back.

I'll be back when the country decides that it wants to act like adults and really solve problems, not talk about how the other side isn't cooperating. Cooperation, if I remember correctly, doesn't involve ultimatums and usually takes two. I should also note that my blood pressure is nice and low now that I no longer follow politics. But boy, that means I know a heck of a lot more about Hollywood than any normal, sane person ought to.